Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair (2004) is a lush period drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Mira Nair and adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray's novel. Reese Witherspoon plays Becky Sharp — sharp-witted, resourceful, and completely without the inherited privilege everyone around her takes for granted.

The story spans two restless decades in Napoleonic England. Becky climbs from poverty in London's back streets through army camps, country houses, and aristocratic drawing rooms — next to her devoted friend Amelia (Romola Garai) but by very different means. She marries a soldier (Rhys Ifans), survives the fallout from Waterloo, loses nearly everything, and keeps finding ways back. The cast also includes Jim Broadbent, Bob Hoskins, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Nair brings an outsider's sympathy to the material: rather than a cold satire of Victorian hypocrisy, this is a warmer film about a woman gaming a system that was never built for her. If you find most costume dramas too polite, Becky Sharp's ruthless charm makes this one feel alive. Stream Vanity Fair (2004) online on iFILM.