A Good Woman
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Movie Reviews of A Good Woman
Movie Review: Modern take on 19th century morality tale
Summary: 4 Stars
What makes this film wonderful is that it is made after Oscar Wilde's play "Mrs. Windermere's Fan". For anyone who saw his play in the theatre, this film is visual disappointment in terms of costumes, jewelry, hair and mannerisms of the female characters. Two main female leads Scarlet Johnasson and Helen Hunt are miscast. It is almost as if their roles are reversed. Johansson is too seductive to be cast as a prim young bride, while Hunt's thin lips and deep, severe facial lines make her even less appealing in her role of a seductress of men. Wilde's smart snippets of wisdom make this film lively. Although film was made in Italy, I wish there were more beautiful places showing in the film that could entice some true romantic emotions - but that is not the case. Tom Wilkinson is great in portraying aging, wealthy man, somewhat pretending to be shallow and yet remaining irresistibly endearing. The moral tale of how men can get away with being a playboy while women have to conform to a higher standards of a moral virtue is still true today. I liked the line that Helen Hunt had where she says to a young woman:"Do you think that just because we got a right to vote that makes us equal to the standards of men?" Good entertainment, but not a great movie.Movie Review: A GOOD WOMAN IN A GOOD MOVIE
Summary: 4 Stars
Oscar's Wilde play `Lady Windermere's Fan.'has been transferred into a decent movie from the British director Mike Barker (`To Kill a King'). This is all about a humorous brilliant production with an outstanding cast as Wild deserves.
Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt) is a middle age experienced woman who is desperate to find money to support her luxurious way of living. She goes in the Italian country side where she is picking up her victims. There she will meet the ideal victims a just married couple the innocent Lady Windermere (Scarlet Johansson), and her husband Lord Windermere (Mark Umbers. In the scene there is a devoted admirer (Tom Wilkinson), and a man really close to Mrs. Erlynne Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore. Secrets stories rumors will create a good movie more funny and less melodramatic all these dressed with beautiful romantic costumes and always with the background of the 19th century.
I recommend it have fun
Movie Review: All in all...very enjoyable....
Summary: 4 Stars
This more modern adaption of Wilde's story is pretty good. It was a pleasant way to spend 2 hours. The acting ability of Scarlett is still up in the air in my opinion. I'm not sure. She seems in every movie I have seen her in to be kind of...stupid, naive and clueless. Like an a-duh style of acting. And Wow Helen Hunt is looking very broke down. Old and tired. Annette Benning would have been a better choice.Movie Review: A Good Woman
Summary: 4 Stars
Helen Hunt was very good! The entire cast was superb. There was so much insights on the movie quotes, love it!Movie Review: The miscasting is mightier than the engaging storyline
Summary: 3 Stars
I really went back and forth with this film. In the end, though, I just couldn't get past the fact that even a good script based on the work of a literary genius like Oscar Wilde just can't overcome the deleterious effects of problematic acting. I can't bring myself to say bad acting because I think Scarlett Johansson is a very good actress and - while I don't really care for her - Helen Hunt is as well. Neither was very good in One Good Woman, however. The blame must really fall on the director and casting director, though, as neither actress really belonged in this film. Helen Hunt may well have tried too hard to fill the role of the adventuress, man-chasing Mrs. Erlynne, resulting in a slow and careful (sometimes stultifying) delivery of dialogue that gives rise to no feeling or charisma whatsoever. With very little charm at her disposal, it becomes difficult to believe that so many men fall so easily under her spell. As for Johansson, she seems totally out of her element here, clearly uncomfortable throughout many a scene. Fortunately, Tom Wilkinson and the fellows I affectionately call "the old geezers" come bearing the quick wit and natural bearing called for in this type of satirical treatment. That allows the script to shine in places, thereby saving the whole project from disaster.
Clearly, this film takes many a liberty with Oscar Wilde's classic drama Lady Windermere's Fan, yet it still wields quite an impressive sword of satirical wit here and there in the script. The story is basically an attack on the hypocrisies of gossip vis-à-vis high society, something Wilde knew quite a bit about. Lady Meg Windermere (Scarlett Johansson) is a young newlywed living in idyllic bliss with her husband Robert. Wealthy, attractive, and well-to-do, she thinks she has the perfect marriage to a man she trusts implicitly. Then Mrs. Erlynne shows up, having left New York rather hastily, courtesy of several wives anxious to see her depart from their husbands' lives. Mrs. Erlynne has always relied (and indeed prospered mightily) on the kindness of strange men, earning her quite a reputation in 1930s America and, rather quickly, Italy. She and Robert Windermere are soon the hot topic of local gossip, with nosy well-to-do women tracking their private meetings and going quite apoplectic about it to one another. When word finally filters down to her, Meg is quite stunned and contemplates some rather rash action of her own. Meanwhile, dear old Tuppy (Wilkinson), a man with his own share of past social indelicacies, quite falls for Mrs. Erlynne and proposes marriage - to the chagrin of all his marriage-hating buddies. These are the lovable "old geezers" I was talking about, and they constantly delight the viewer with short, stinging, and remarkably witty complaints about the institution of marriage.
I won't attempt to chronicle the shifting layers of this film, for the plot takes a number of delicious turns along the way. The plot's solid, as is the writing. Indeed, I would sometimes find myself pulled into the story rather engagingly, but the magic always departed once Hunt and/or Johansson turned up for a more serious scene. That proves to be too much for this film to overcome. Yes, it's always a treat to reexplore Victorian sensibilities (even if they're arbitrarily shifted to 1930s Italy), but A Good Woman never exhibits the first sign of life or energy, plodding its way through a story that could have and should have been much more enjoyable.