The Magnificent Ambersons
by Alfonso Arau
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bruce Greenwood, Gretchen Mol, Jennifer Tilly, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Madeleine StoweDirector: Alfonso Arau
Brand: A&E
Producer: Aldo U. Passalacqua
Producer: Delia Fine
Producer: Doris Schwartz
Producer: Gene Kirkwood
Producer: Guido De Angelis
Writer: Booth Tarkington
Writer: Orson Welles
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 150 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-02-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: A&E Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Magnificent Ambersons
Movie Review: A hack job done to a potential classic in 1942 is taken a step further
Summary: 2 Stars
When one reads that the director based this adaptation of Tarkington's novel on the shooting script by Orson Welles, one expects something special to come of it. Unfortunately, this is an insipid interpretation of Welles' version of the novel, with some full-bloodedly bad acting by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Jennifer Tilly. Some truly embarrassing scenes between the two of them made me wince. Any actor who'd like a lesson in how NOT to act should watch these two go at it here.
Madeline Stowe and Bruce Greenwood, taking the roles originally played by Dolores Costello and Joseph Cotten, are not at all bad, but they don't have half the charm and chemistry of the originals. Two stars for their performances, particularly Bruce Greenwood, and for Gretchen Mol as Lucy.
Also making me wince was the director's outpour of what should be only gently hinted: the quasi-incestuous murmur between Isabel and young George. George undresses in front of his mother; takes her face in his hands and kisses her lips, etc. And Isabel's death scene is way, way over the top. Just gross, really.
Poor Orson Welles --in 1942, his original film got chopped up by studio hacks, and now a hack job using Welles' shooting script despoils it even further; gracing it with bad performances and flat direction. I am so relieved that I only borrowed this film from my local library.
Summary of The Magnificent Ambersons
Studio: A&e Home Video Release Date: 02/26/2002 Run time: 150 minutes Rating: NrAlfonso Arau's handsome The Magnificent Ambersons, based on Orson Welles's original screenplay, is a brave attempt to restore the dramatic scenes lost when RKO radically recut Welles's magnificent 1941 masterpiece, but it's less a remake than a new take on the material. Bruce Greenwood makes a gracious and sincere Eugene Morgan, the inventor who woos heiress Isabel Amberson (a vibrant Madeleine Stowe) and finds his rival is her spoiled, arrogant son, George (played with sneering, bug-eyed intensity by Jonathan Rhys Meyers). It hits a few sour notes (notably Meyers and a terribly miscast Jennifer Tilly as the jealous Aunt Fanny), but the "new" scenes explore the sprawl of the city, the falling fortunes of the Amberson dynasty, and the almost incestuous intimacy between mother and son only hinted at in Welles's compromised version. It may lack the grand design and cinematic grace of Welles, but it creates its own gentle take on Booth Tarkington's turbulent novel. --Sean Axmaker
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