SnoopyStyle Mary (Romola Garai) is starving and steals food from a lady on a picnic. She is transported to the penal colony of Botany Bay in Australia along with other petty criminals like Will Bryant (Alex O'Loughlin). Idealistic Lt Ralph Clarke (Jack Davenport) takes pity on Mary and takes care of her. She lets out that she's pregnant from another jailer and he's taken aback by rumors of possible moral impropriety. At the colony, Will becomes the only fisherman and marries Mary. Together they start a family. However the colony is hit with riot, rapes, drought and starvation. Mary seduces Ralph in a plan to steal the only sea-worthy boat and supplies as the group of outlaws escape the colony under Gov. Phillip (Sam Neill)'s harsh rule.Mary Bryant is a wonderful character daringly performed by Romola Garai. I'm conflicted about the story. It's not correct historically and I don't think it works dramatically. It would flow better to fictionalize the story even more. The first part is amazing. The last half of the second part struggles with various turns and slower parts. It's a great character in a historical drama.

Aleen O'Sullivan Only reason I didn't vote this mini-series I watched on a DVD as a movie at the max rating of 10 is that it doesn't completely follow the true story, which makes fascinating reading online afterward (not before, so you don't spoil the dramatic unfolding) with greater detail of intense interest inspired by this film.The artistic license taken with the inspiring actions of Cornishwoman Mary Braund Bryant & other seminal settlers of New South Wales given a chance to live out of prisons overflowing from British caste system starvation like were shipped to the American colonies is so engaging and gripping that I recommend it for mature audiences though ladies you may not want your husbands watching sexy actress Romola Garai in this earthy steamy depiction of desperate overcoming.We can all relate to the human condition of striving to meet & rise above life's challenges & difficulties, and recordings of such history help us explore in our spirits & souls how we would rise to the occasion in such situations as these with God's help not acknowledged here but ever present in the facts of timely favor and circumstances bringing common folk to uncommon experiences & unlikely fame. Thought provoking not only about "relative ethics" to survive in our cruelly fallen world, but also a bird's eye view of a macrocosm of a microcosm of His-story through different cultures encountering & influencing each other as well as by individual choices between good & evil, lowness & greatness, in our fleeting world, with ramifications for eternity. As theologian William Shedd said later, in the new USA, in the 1800s, "A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." And as Phoenician/Lebanese Christian chiropractic physician Dr. Michael Shalhoub, cousin of actor Tony Shalhoub, of Southern California says, "Courage is contagious." Each of us faces challenges we can look back on & be glad we tried, even regardless of outcome.

Jem Odewahn Watching this again after first seeing the mini-series on TV a few years back, I am again left stunned by "Mary Bryant". It has to be one of the best productions to have ever come out of Australia. Based on the true story of a female convict who escaped the harsh penal colony in the 1700's, this is an absorbing, well-acted work.Romola Garai turns in her best performance thus far as Mary Bryant. Garai makes Mary alternately fascinating, infuriating, gutsy, heartless, direct and selfless. The film opens with Mary Bryant, nee Broad, running along the Cornwall coastline (actually Kiama, NSW), with voice-over from Garai. Born of a fishing family, Mary is 17, wild, independent-minded and starving. Convicted of theft, she is transported to Botany Bay. In the opening five minutes, the three protagonists are effortlessly produced. Garai boards the ship, and the camera pans to fellow convict, the laughing, handsome Will Bryant (Alex O'Loughlin), who will become Mary's husband and soul mate. We then cut to Lt Ralph Clarke (Jack Davenport), the man who will be passionately, obsessively in love with her, and will stop at no lengths to have her at his side.Davenport's Clarke is, for me, the most interesting part of this excellent production. He gives a wonderful performance as the strict soldier who will order a ferocious whipping or hanging then tenderly caress Mary's face. The film is cut and shot in a way that actually makes us sympathize, and associate Mary more with Clarke than her husband. Garai and Davenport share a volatile chemistry in these scenes, and the viewer is torn between Mary's determination to have the best for her struggling family and her use of Clarke as merely a sexual tool for her to get the key to the supply room for their daring escape. When they meet again on the beaches of Timor, the confrontation is surely one of the most emotionally moments I have yet seen. And, later, emotion does not get any rawer than Garai's speech in the courtroom back in England.

Jackson Booth-Millard It is a story based on true events, but when I saw the trailer I thought it was a story about a female pirate or something. Starring Romola Garai as Mary Broad/Bryant, it is the story of one woman's journey as a slave/prisoner, then an island villager, then mother and wife, then escapee, and finally near criminal. She started out on a boat run by Lt. Ralph Clarke (Jack Davenport, Mastercard's "Priceless" voice). When the boat found an island where they started a new life and village, she met Will Bryant (Alex O'Loughlin) who she married and had her second child with. But they soon got sick of their life on the island and escaped with four other companions. Towards they "film" they become members of a class, but are found guilty in court. Mary is courageous and says she will face the consequences as she lost her children and husband, but the other two she wanted to be released. Also starring a quite good Sam Neill as Governor Arthur Phillip. Very good!