The Golden Bowl
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Movie Reviews of The Golden Bowl
Movie Review: Terrific Film, Terrific Adaptation
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a bit puzzled by all the hostile comments on this movie.
I've read The Golden Bowl five times, at least. I have also seen most film and TV adaptations of James novels and novellas done since the 1970s and this one stands up very well under the double test: is it faithful to the book's spirit, is it a good film?
I loved this movie, have seen it twice and given it as a gift. I found it perfectly cast, filmed, and paced. TGB is a long dense intensely internal book but it has been faithfully rendered by a screenwriter who boldly brought the violence and threat at the core of the book forward in a fascinating sort of prologue, and made one of the book's most famous images, the Pagoda, part of a nightmare. Each time I see these sections I admire her ingenuity.
Uma Thurman broke my heart as the passionate, lonely, sensual Europeanized American who cannot have what she wants when she wants it. Yes, the part was played differently by Gayle Hunnicutt in the estimable British TV version, but so what? Thurman works because she makes it so clear how much more she wants Amerigo than the opposite and her verbal rebellion at one point is explosive (in a Jamesian way, of course).
Jeremy Northam is suitably lordly and devilishly handsome. His accent sounds just right to me, having been around Europeans who learned English from English speakers: the mix is sometimes inconsistent though charming.
Kate Beckinsale is just right as the limited innocent whose innocence is a kind of cruelty and watching her grow up, make the sacrifices she needs to while fighting through the pain of terrible awareness was haunting. Nick Nolte was sublime as the phlegmatic wealthy collector. You feel the roughness behind his suavity and the world-weariness. He's got all these amazing obejcts but what does he really have? His devotion to his daughter is pitched just right.
I loved how the film often cast him and Kate as isolated amid their stupefyinbgly beautiful collections. I loved how there are scenes opening the movie that take us back to the Prince's Renaissance forebears and that create dramatic irony when she re-enters the orbit of Maggie and Adam.
I was captivated by this movie even more the second viewing than the first, and even though the book is so familiar to me that I quote from it now and then. I own the Gayle Hunnicutt version and am glad there are too such stylish, intelligent, and very different takes on one of our greatest novels in English.
Movie Review: NOT one of those hardcore Merchant Ivory fans with a lovelust for any and all English boys
Summary: 5 Stars
I like this movie. I watch it almost every time I find it playing on cable for Kate Beckinsale doing her lethal American impression, definitely MORE devastating than her impersonation in Last Days of Disco. Maybe she's gotten too clever for me to comprehend what the heck is going on when she does Americans nowadays so this movie must remain the strongest draw for my admiration of her. This movie is gorgeous to look at in it's material sumptuousness and entertaining in its American getting their wayness. I've never read Henry James but have watched a number of early Merchant-Ivory films, none of which made an impression on me. They were pleasant and pretty in an eggshell blue way. This movie is gold and coral and stone. I was very sad to hear that Mr. Merchant had passed because I finally liked one of his and James Ivory's films. I wanted to see if follow up films would as enjoyable as The Golden Bowl. Maybe this is the Merchant Ivory movie I like because none of the main characters are English although two of the actors are English.Movie Review: About the best the film genre can do with Henry James
Summary: 5 Stars
First let me say that I am an admirer of Henry James and that the Golden Bowl is one of my favorites. Secondly, I feel it is impossible for a film to capture the psychological subtleties of any literature, let alone Henry James. Having established that, I must say that the film is probably about as good as possible. My only real objection is that the ending is portrayed as "happy." No Henry James endings are happy; they are ambiguous. Reread the ending: it is not a happy one for any of the characters but it fits the psychological development of the novel. So, the film is a good film: the acting is fine (I thought Angelica Houston was excellent); Thurman's character is not dignified enough but otherwise all have done about as much as can be done in an essentially simplistic medium. The use of symbolism was adequate, too. But, let's face it: Who can possibly translate Henry James into film. Let's be generous.
Movie Review: Miscasting
Summary: 5 Stars
How disappointing to have the role of Amerigo, an Italian from Rome, played by British actor Jeremy Northam with a phony Italian accent. It strains credulity to watch him. I'm sure there are plenty of Italian actors who could have given more believability to this role. Northam's casting is the only major flaw in this otherwise excellent movie.Movie Review: I've watched this movie more than a dozen times.
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is so easy to rewatch. The dialogue is great, the people and the clothes are perfect looking but best of all, those Americans never even turned a hair taking down those Europeans. It's a soap opera.