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THE GOLDEN BOWL Send This Review to a Friend
Director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant, abetted by their long-time collaborator screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, have made a lavish film in trying to scale the literary mountain of Henry James's 1904 novel "The Golden Bowl." Devotees of James will have their own ideas of the adaptation as to faithfulness, but the bottom line here is the project's viability as a film in its own right. On that score, the new work is beautiful to look at, generally well acted, engrossing in its tightly-focused study of love, betrayal and accommodation but not very deep in its hints of the significance of American wealth and its relationship to Europe.
Mostly it emerges as an intricate love story detailed against a larger landscape. Early in the drama we see the breakup of the relationship between the American young woman Charlotte Stant (Uma Thurman) and her Italian lover, Prince Amerigo (Jeremy Northam). He is the one who rejects her, making it clear that he has no money. The story then moves to England, where Amerigo is to marry Charlotte's childhood friend Maggie Verver (Kate Beckinsale), who doesn't know of the past liaison and is in a state of great enthusiasm over the impending arrival of Charlotte for the wedding. Maggie is devoted to her billionaire American father, widower Adam Verver (Nick Nolte), who made his money in coal, now has a lavish English estate, has been collecting art treasures and hopes to transport the paintings back to a museum that he wants to build in America to bring culture to working people.
Charlotte is still carrying the torch for Amerigo, who tries to resist but his libido is no match for the persuasions of his determined ex-lover. The complications are enormous. Maggie and Amerigo marry, and Charlotte, all the while still harboring love for her friend's husband, nonetheless marries Verver. He is sincere about her, but she, while enjoying his wealth, is bent on betraying him. The secret of the past is known by Fanny Assingham (Anjelica Huston), and she catches on quickly to the intensifying marital infidelity that sets tongues wagging. Who knows what when becomes a dance of suppressed emotions, and there is a flawed "golden bowl," which looms as a metaphorical piece of evidence.
Nolte is excellent in a knowingly reserved way as the pivotal Verver, and Beckinsale makes Maggie totally convincing in her movement from innocence to her knowledge of having been betrayed, yet still loving her husband, and her determination to protect her father. Thurman, who has a tough job in the duplicitous role of Charlotte, effectively copes with the part's nuances and changes in tone. Northam seems a bit too smarmy as Amerigo, although he does make him believable. Huston has exactly the right mode of bitchiness masking what she considers good intentions.
As with the Merchant-Ivory genre, the film breathes good taste, and while some may find the manner too detached, it is this very refusal to become corrupted by jazzing it up that makes the film special for those who will appreciate the team's upscale filmmaking and will enjoy becoming immersed in the characters, their machinations and their surroundings. A Lion's Gate release.
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