The House of Mirth
by Terence Davies
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Anthony LaPaglia, Dan Aykroyd, Eleanor Bron, Gillian Anderson, Terry KinneyDirector: Terence Davies
Cinematographer: Remi Adefarasin
Writer: Terence Davies
Producer: Alan J. Wands
Producer: Bob Last
Producer: Olivia Stewart
Producer: Pippa Cross
Writer: Edith Wharton
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
Running Time: 140 minutes
Release Date: 2001-06-24
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Studio: Sony Pictures
VHS Movie Reviews of The House of Mirth
Movie Review: Social complexity and a heroine who does not learn from mistakes
Summary: 5 Stars
When you read the reviews of this film, reviewers who have read the book tend to rate the film lower and indicate that film does not measure up to the novel. However, I think it is only fair to review the film as a stand alone artistic production independent of the source novel, and under this condition the film is superb and highly disturbing. I found myself thinking about the film all the next day after I saw it, for it is dark social commentary on the human condition.
Gillian Anderson plays Lily Bart, a cool socialite, seeking a rich husband among the New York City social upper class. The film follows Lily as she makes one mistake after another in judgment, all with consequences that begin to undermine her social position. Her vulnerability is based on her ambivalence and inaction when action is required. Lily had upper class parents who lost their fortune when she was 19. Now she lives with her Aunt Julia Peniston, and her cousin, Grace Julia Stepney.
The most obvious ambiguity in her life is her love for the handsome lawyer, Lawrence Selden, who does not have the size fortune needed to attract and maintain Lily. She loves him and yet her vocation is to seek a wealthy husband, and Lawrence recognizes that this is her vocation, the goal toward which everyone in her family and social network directs her, and thus he does not push his affections upon her. They become a tragic pair of star-crossed lovers. Eric Stoltz does a great job playing Selden, a cool sophisticated socially accepted handsome man. Under normal circumstance he would be an excellent choice for a husband. However Lily has been bred to go after the highest prize, the wealthiest men in New York City.
Lily has a small inheritance of $9,000 of which she has lost $8,000 in gambling debt which she must repay. She is friends with Gus and Judy Trenor and Judy is attempting to fix Lily up with New York's most wealthy men. But Lily loves Lawrence and she undermines each and every attempt to connect her to a rich husband and secure future. She confides to Gus Trenor that she is in debt and he offers to manage her inheritance. Lily sees Judy and Gus as her great friends and attends the opera with Gus when Judy is in the countryside. Gillian Anderson looks outstanding dressed in red for the Mozart opera but her conspicuous beauty in combination with her married escort begins to stimulate gossip and tales that reach the ears of her prudish rich aunt. Funds come in which Lily disburses, not realizing that these funds are not her dividends but the funds of Gus Trenor who finally reveals he wishes her to become his lover so as to repay the funds he has given her. She refuses Gus but the damage to her reputation has been done.
This incident is minor stuff compared to the incredible double-cross that she endures from Bertha Dorset, who sets up Lily to cover her own marital indiscretion. Lily's cousin Grace uses every opportunity to influence the elderly Aunt Julia and when Julia dies the vast fortune goes to Grace with only enough funds going to Lily to pay her debts.
Lily has the evidence to shame Bertha Dorset and give her husband George Dorset the grounds for a divorce but she does not use the tools she has been given. When the wealthy Jewish businessman Sim Rosedale offers her a strategy by which she can regain her status, she refuses to act, probably because Bertha has had an affair with Lawrence Selden and thus to act would also hurt Lawrence. When rich Aunt Julia dies, she leaves Lily $10,000, enough to cover her debts but no more. Lily never understood or appreciated her aunt's value system and what games would be required to inherit the vast fortune of $400,000 that is left to cousin Grace. Remember that $400,000 in 1907 is equal to about 400 million in 2008 dollars.
The film tracks Lily's sad fall down the social ladder and the poor self destructive decisions that Lily has made come to bring about her downfall. It is an irony that she never really commits any of the indiscretions for which she is accused. Beautiful rich women in her class had to balance their vocation of acquiring wealth with their passion for men other than their husbands. Lily was not cut out for this strategy that Bertha Dorset has mastered so well. Laura Linney is excellent as the relentless Bertha who would sacrifice Lily to cover her own indiscretion.
The end is sad and crushing. Lily has learned that life is difficult and that she is useless person if she no longer resides in the upper crust of wealthy society. She comes to see that she was just a cog in a giant social machine and when she dropped out of the machine, she was of little use to anyone.
Summary of The House of Mirth
Meticulously adapted from Edith Wharton's 1905 novel, The House of Mirth may seem at first to be as dry (and as flat) as pressed flowers, but it's quickly evident that director Terence Davies and X-Files star Gillian Anderson (in a breakthrough film role) have tapped directly into the venality of Wharton's New York society. As the ill-fated socialite Lily Bart, Anderson perfectly conveys the understated wit and craftiness of a woman who knows how to play the game, and yet learns too late that it's loaded with ruthless, unspoken rules. Rising above the traditional crop of "marriageable girls," Lily is desired by any number of men who could ensure her place among the moneyed elite, but she deflects their courtship; lawyer Lawrence Selden (Eric Stoltz) is her true love but, tragically, his modest financial status leads them both into a cycle of unfulfilled romance.Instead, Lily makes too many assumptions about her station, offending her aunt (Eleanor Bron), falling into a financial obligation to a manipulative investor (a curiously apt role for Dan Aykroyd), ostracized by a "friend" (Laura Linney), and refusing help from her most prominent would-be suitor (Anthony LaPaglia). All of these gaffes combine to forge Lily's downfall, and Anderson brilliantly captures the horror and confusion of a woman who is shocked when her expectations are no longer matched by her reality. Lily grows defenseless and dependent, and The House of Mirth evolves from stately reserve to become a devastating portrait of class cruelty. Heavy stuff, to be sure, but expertly crafted and blessed by Anderson's complex and heartbreaking performance. --Jeff Shannon
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