Film Review
Yannick Guerry Reviews A Good Woman
"Many a woman has a past, but I am told that she has at least a dozen, and that they all fit." This quotation, from Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan, could have been used as the 'tag line' for its screen adaptation retitled 'A Good Woman', released this May.
The film is set on the sumptuous Amalfi coast of Italy and in 1930s London. It follows a group of wealthy society figures, lotharios, dandies and seductresses as they wile away the summer on the Italian Riviera.
The seemingly perfect young newly-weds Lord and Lady Windermere (played by Mark Umbers and Scarlett Johansson) are the darlings of the community: Lady Windermere, an alluring ingénue, and her husband, a dashing financier.
A storm of gossip and controversy hits the coast when scandalised Mrs Erlynne (played by Helen Hunt) arrives from New York to set up camp in Amalfi. She immediately sets her sights on Lord Windermere and an apparently sordid affair ensues, much to the shock of the tourists - and to the delight of the serial gossip Contessa Lucchino.
Tom Wilkinson, playing the amiable Lord 'Tuppy', puts in a witty performance as Mrs Erlynne's suffering suitor whimsically musing on the trials of love and finding a mate: "I can resist everything except temptation." Scarlett Johansson shines as the coy Lady Windermere yet it is Helen Hunt who steals the show with a seasoned performance as the much-maligned Mrs Erlynne. Her character is the most three-dimensional of the film.
Mark Umbers, by contrast, is rather predictable and his relationship with Johansson fails to spark as it should. Milena Vukotic, playing the chatterbox Contessa provides amusing moments. The supporting cast includes English playboy Lord Darlington (played by Stephen Campbell Moore) and Diana Hardcastle as Lady Plymdale.
The most endearing feature of the film is the beautiful backdrop of the Amalfi coast, shamelessly exhibited by the cinematographer at every opportunity as though the film was a promotional video for the Italian Tourist Board.
A Good Woman is a delight to watch, the performances are sympathetic and the script is faithful enough to Wilde's original. The plot has a twist that rescues it from being entirely predictable. Ultimately Wilde would have been pleased that a hundred years after he lived, his works are still as popular as ever. In his own words: "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
"Many a woman has a past, but I am told that she has at least a dozen, and that they all fit." This quotation, from Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan, could have been used as the 'tag line' for its screen adaptation retitled 'A Good Woman', released this May.
The film is set on the sumptuous Amalfi coast of Italy and in 1930s London. It follows a group of wealthy society figures, lotharios, dandies and seductresses as they wile away the summer on the Italian Riviera.
The seemingly perfect young newly-weds Lord and Lady Windermere (played by Mark Umbers and Scarlett Johansson) are the darlings of the community: Lady Windermere, an alluring ingénue, and her husband, a dashing financier.
A storm of gossip and controversy hits the coast when scandalised Mrs Erlynne (played by Helen Hunt) arrives from New York to set up camp in Amalfi. She immediately sets her sights on Lord Windermere and an apparently sordid affair ensues, much to the shock of the tourists - and to the delight of the serial gossip Contessa Lucchino.
Tom Wilkinson, playing the amiable Lord 'Tuppy', puts in a witty performance as Mrs Erlynne's suffering suitor whimsically musing on the trials of love and finding a mate: "I can resist everything except temptation." Scarlett Johansson shines as the coy Lady Windermere yet it is Helen Hunt who steals the show with a seasoned performance as the much-maligned Mrs Erlynne. Her character is the most three-dimensional of the film.
Mark Umbers, by contrast, is rather predictable and his relationship with Johansson fails to spark as it should. Milena Vukotic, playing the chatterbox Contessa provides amusing moments. The supporting cast includes English playboy Lord Darlington (played by Stephen Campbell Moore) and Diana Hardcastle as Lady Plymdale.
The most endearing feature of the film is the beautiful backdrop of the Amalfi coast, shamelessly exhibited by the cinematographer at every opportunity as though the film was a promotional video for the Italian Tourist Board.
A Good Woman is a delight to watch, the performances are sympathetic and the script is faithful enough to Wilde's original. The plot has a twist that rescues it from being entirely predictable. Ultimately Wilde would have been pleased that a hundred years after he lived, his works are still as popular as ever. In his own words: "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
posted by Yannick at 7:53 AM
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