Retro Film Review: The Portrait of a Lady (1996)

Jane Campion, only three years after receiving plenty of prestigious awards and rave reviews for her feminist period melodrama The Piano, tried to repeat that triumph with her another ambitious period film. She has taken Henry James novel The Portrait of a Lady, one of 19th Century American literature's most important books, and adapted it into film that, at the end of a day, turned into failure.

Following the brief modern-day prologue, the plot begins in 1872 England. Isabel Archer (played by Nicole Kidman) is 23-year old American orphan who visits her rich uncle, Mr. Touchet (played by John Gielgud). There she becomes attractive target for many potential suitors who would solve her financial problems. Her sickly cousin Ralph (played by Martin Donovan) has a better idea and persuades Mr. Touchet to leave huge sum of money to Isabel. When the old man dies, Isabel is financially independent and free to pursue her dream of travelling through Europe. During her journey, she falls prey to the seductive manipulation of sleazy and impoverished Gilbert Osmond (played by John Malkovich) and his mistress Serena Merle (played by Barbara Hershey).

There are many reasons why The Portrait of a Lady turned into such disappointment, but the biggest of them probably lies in Campion's ambition to beat Merchant Ivory at their game of adapting old literary classics. 600 page novel she took was quite a challenge for adaptation, and only the most talented and experienced screenwriter could have squeezed the plot and characters in two and half hours of running time. Laura Jones, unfortunately, wasn't up to that task – the plot is in many way incomprehensible, and Jones and Campion only added to the confusion with their feminist interpretations of plot elements. Probably the worst of all was decision to cast Malkovich in the role of Osmond - he plays him in such way that nobody could believe that some lady like Isabel Archer would end up with such obviously evil and sinister man. The film isn't helped by some unfortunate choices, including Nicole Kidman's hairstyle, which looks like spitting image of the horror Annie Lenox had in her "No More I Love Yous" music video. The only good thing in The Portrait of a Lady is Wojciech Kilar's music, but those who like to enjoy it should better spend money on CD than subject themselves to two and half hours of failed film.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on October 30th 2003)

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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/36758-the-portrait-of-a-lady
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