A Good Woman
A Good Woman (2006) is an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s first big hit, Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892). Oscar wrote a wonderful plot twist which I must not give away, so I will make the movie summary brief. A rich, newly married, young couple, Mr. and Mrs. Windermere (Mark Umbers and Scarlett Johannson) spend “the season” on the gorgeous Amalfi Coast of southern Italy. The incredibly gossipy bunch of Brits and Americans there soon spy Mr. Windermere sneaking around with an older woman of ill repute, Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt). When the prim and proper Mrs. Windermere discovers cheque stubs in her husband’s cheque book written to Mrs. Erlynne, she suspects the worst, and the local gossips supply sympathy. A Good Woman is a good movie marred by bad acting. As you would expect in a Wilde play, the dialogue is tremendously witty. The caddish Lord D says to Mrs. Windermere, whom he is trying to seduce, “I find the best way to keep my word is never to give it.” This repartee takes place amid a flurry of gorgeous 1930 costumes in a richly picturesque setting. Helen Hunt as the bad/good woman who made her way in the world by being a mistress is bafflingly bad as an actress. She never seems to get a handle on her character, maybe pushing too hard to make a bad woman good. At other times, her lines are flat as if she is saying them on cue without inhabiting the character. Mark Umbers is a poor Mr. Windermere because he is simply amateurish. Some viewers might complain that Scarlett Johannson is unduly restricted and uncomfortable in the role of the proper Mrs. Windermere, but her circumscribed outlook and her awkward behaviour were exactly what her 1930 character would have been like. But Tom Wilkinson is the only actor who rises above the call of duty. As the aged suitor of the evil Mrs. E, he is heart-felt, realistic, humorous, and somehow subtle, so that I was cheering for him to convince Mrs. E to marry him even though it may not have been a wise move. When you have so much substandard acting in a major motion picture, I think you have to look at the director. Mike Barber is a 40-year old Brit who has a very short directing career. You wonder how he landed such a big picture. Then, when he does not draw out good acting from an actress as experienced and often affecting as Helen Hunt, why is he immediately working on another major motion picture, Butterfly on a Wheel (2007) starring Pierce Brosnan (who has recently made the exceptionally fine The Matador) and Maria Bello (who is a hot property after A History of Violence)? I think a better director would have enabled acting to match the witty dialogue, gorgeous period costumes, and amazing setting.
Jim Bell