Portrait of a Lady
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VHS Movie Reviews of Portrait of a Lady
Movie Review: IT COULD HAVE BEEN A CONTENDER...
Summary: 3 Stars
Jane Campion is a brilliant director who can direct a film and convey much with a minimum of language and action. Her film, "The Piano" is a testament to that innate talent. This would lead one to believe that directing an adaptation of a Henry James novel would be a natural segue for her.
While this is a lush and beautiful period piece, the problem with it is that it is somewhat dull. Despite stellar performances by Barbara Hershey and the supporting cast, the main star, Nicole Kidman, is out of her league, though she is a luminous beauty and has some acting ability. The problem is that her performance lacks the presence or depth necessary to transcend the material and make this a truly interesting film. She just is not good enough an actress to be able to carry this type of storyline and engage the viewer in the lead role of wealthy expatriate, Isabel Archer.
Moreover, while John Malkovich gives a wonderful performance as the malevolent Gilbert Osmond, he is decidedly miscast as he is simply not charismatic enough to make it believable that Isabel Archer would throw caution to the wind over such an unattractive and, decidedly, sinister man. It is unfortunate, as the film is an otherwise fairly faithful adaptation of Henry James' complex novel of the same name. It could have been a contender.
Movie Review: This is why....
Summary: 5 Stars
I ADORE period movies! The acting, scenes, story line...character growth is beyond amazing. The scenery is breathtaking. The movie pulls at my soul and heart....
And I love the ending....so much intense possibilty with that one pause and backward glance. Nicole Kidman was superb in this adaption. All the other actors as well were excellent.
This is by far the best adaption of Portrait of a Lady I have yet seen.
Movie Review: Too much emphasis on girl power
Summary: 3 Stars
I have a hard time taking Jame Campion's work seriously, because she has such a chip on her shoulder. She'll find a way to present such a male-centered classic like "Portrait of a Lady" through her own feminist filter. Once again, she tries to show how wicked manipulative men try to bring down a "strong idealistic woman". Really, Jane Campion is better off adapting the works of Sapho. She should leave dead white male authors alone. She and Cher need to get together and organize a self-pitying feminist fest. Movie Review: How does it end?
Summary: 2 Stars
Isabel, played by Nicole Kidman, is not sure what she wants. After her parents' death, she travels to England to live with her uncle and cousin. She leaves a suitor behind in Boston. The movie opens with a proposal of marriage by another suitor, which Isabel turns down. She is not sure whether she ever wants to marry. She wants to remain free and do great things.
Isabel has a unique relationship with her consumptive cousin. If anyone, she loves him. Her American suitor follows her to England in a failed attempt to woe her. Isabel says to leave her alone for another two years.
Her uncle dies leaving her a great fortune. She travels to Italy and meets a man (played by John Malcovich) she can't stop thinking about, even as she tours the world. After two years her American suitor calls again, and Isabel again turns him down. After marrying, Isabel soon learns that her husband only married her for her money, and her life turns very unhappy.
Isabel's step daughter, Pansy, falls in love, but her father won't let her marry her love. Pansy is afraid to disobey her father who insists on a match with a rich man. Isabel finds herself in the middle of the matchmaking, and is blamed when a suitor (one of her former suitors as well) becomes disinterested.
Isabel goes to her cousin on his death bed in England, leaving her husband against his wishes. This escape frees her. After a tearful good bye with her cousin, Isabel encounters her old American suitor once again. Played by Viggo Mortensen, his tender, unwavering love for Isabel is the highlight of the movie.
As always, Isabel runs from him, but in the last moment she turns. The movie leaves us hanging. The viewer must imagine the ending.
The movie is a bit of a tragedy. How could a woman surrounded by so much love make such a poor decision?
Definitely not light hearted.
Movie Review: SOMEWHAT SPLAYED-OUT BUT GORGEOUS RETELLING OF THE CLASSIC
Summary: 4 Stars
At about two and a half hours, Jane Campion tinkers at the bare threshold of monotony with this gorgeous period-piece, but she seldom falters in her ability to make her leading roles (The Piano, Sweetie) hypnotically compelling for all of their mulishness and tenacity.
Much has already been said about Malkovich and Kidman, both of whom I find were good if not superb, and Barbara Hershey, who brings just the right flavour of deviousness to her character. So I will focus instead on some common criticisms of this film.
Reviewers lament Campion's psychological simplifications of the theme, or her ungenerous treatment of Isabel as a sufferer of false consciousness who walks blindly into her own trap. On the contrary, I think the director is both adventurous and above-board in stating her revisionist projects from the very opening frame.
Henry James lived in the 1880s. His original work was intended as an exploration of what a woman might do if she were given independent means, and his story indicted women as being trapped by a weaker nature.
Exploring the same material Campion comes to a different, more ambiguous, but IMHO, also more interesting conclusion. She prefers to establish the film largely as Isabel's subjective experience, not as the story told by some omniscient narrator on whose shoulders falls the onus of proof. This is evidenced, for instance, by a sequence at the beginning where Isabel imagines making love with three different men at the same time.
For all its occasional flaws the film is at least internally consistent and proves to me yet again that Campion possesses cinematic imagination in spades. From her comes some of the boldest use of lighting and Black & White interludes I have seen in modern cinema.
Net net, don't let the negative reviews put you off, this is a very heart-warming experience even if a languorous one. Recommended rental for sure.