CNS Movie Review: A Good Woman

A Good Woman

By Harry Forbes
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Oscar Wilde's durable Victorian-era melodrama "Lady Windermere's Fan" has provided fodder for everything from a classic Ernst Lubitsch silent film with Ronald Colman to a Noel Coward musical in the 1950s titled "After the Ball."

Here it is again, this time called "A Good Woman" (Lions Gate). The result is a reasonably faithful -- but rather dank -- updating set in 1930s Italy.

As before, the plot concerns the notorious Mrs. Erlynne (a miscast Helen Hunt), who clearly has a past history of affairs with married men. Her funds are low, and her credit at the best restaurants has been suspended. Now facing eviction, she spies a newspaper account of the marriage of wealthy Robert Windermere (Mark Umbers) to Meg (Scarlett Johansson), and hatches a plan.

The couple is vacationing in Amalfi, Italy, where Mrs. Erlynne contrives to make the acquaintance of Windermere, after which follow a series of assignations that before long has the Windermeres' social circle, including Lady Plymdale (Diana Hardcastle) and Contessa Lucchino (Milena Vukotic), aflutter.

Despite her checkered past, Mrs. Erlynne eventually meets the approving eye of one of the wealthy Brits known as Tuppy (Tom Wilkinson), whose coterie includes Cecil (Roger Hammond) and Dumby (John Standing).

Before long, word reaches Meg, who is all too ready to believe the gossip that the mysterious lady is having an affair with her husband, and seems ready to have a rebound affair with the predatory but charming Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore).

In her desperation, she is poised to make a life-destroying decision. What will she do?

We won't spoil the plot of a still-good story that even in this watered-down version manages to hold some interest. Suffice it to say Wilde has some twists up his sleeve.

Director Mike Barker has cast his leads with mainly American actors. But Hunt is unconvincing, lacking the requisite air of glamorous mystery. Johansson fares a bit better, but in each case, their flat American intonation makes you long for the standard crisp British delivery.

And so it is that several of the English supporting players (Wilkinson, Hammond and Standing) come off best, and while Howard Himelstein's script purloins several of Wilde's choice epigrams, the overall rewrite is below par. Even the 1925 silent had more inherent wit. The current version has more in common with Otto Preminger's uninspired 1949 "The Fan."

Ben Scott's production design may have been meant to be richly atmospheric, but the dark, underlit sets are a downer.

As an introduction to Wilde, the film -- which now joins "The Importance of Being Earnest" and "An Ideal Husband" in the modern cinema panoply of Wilde adaptations -- may serve a purpose, and sexuality and language issues are, we're happy to say, practically nonexistent.

Can "A Woman of No Importance" be far behind?

The film contains implied adultery, attempted seduction, a character with implied past promiscuity and some mild husband-wife bedroom intimacy. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

- - -

Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

END

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250

FIND A MOVIE

   Looking for a
   movie review?
   Click "Movie List"
   button above

   OR

   Enter a keyword
   from the movie
   title in the box
   below and click
   the "Search"
   button.

Classifications
and
ratings?