Merchant-Ivory-Jhabvala films are mostly pretentious, precious, coy, and overlong. Scenes, glances, stares, long shots, and dialogues seem to be designed for length=art. I appreciate some of MIP but overall find it artsy.
James was a great novelist but most of his later works ponderous and captious to the extreme.
James & MIP are much alike and combining MIP with James can be a disaster eg. The Bostonians.
Golden Bowl was a pleasant surprise. Thurman, usually nicely understated, overacts; Northam, typically in control of his role, isn't; Nolte is out of time and place; Beckinsale, a fluffy TV actress, is clear in her character and does a nice job.
It all works (except maybe Nolte).
It's a bit modernized: James had his characters "making love" via a quick glance; Northam drives Thurman towards orgasm with his hand in her crotch.
It's almost as if MIP decided to make a crisp and tough film version of James. Or perhaps they saw themselves in James and overreacted. In any case, it's a decent movie overall and mostly worth seeing.
James was a great novelist but most of his later works ponderous and captious to the extreme.
James & MIP are much alike and combining MIP with James can be a disaster eg. The Bostonians.
Golden Bowl was a pleasant surprise. Thurman, usually nicely understated, overacts; Northam, typically in control of his role, isn't; Nolte is out of time and place; Beckinsale, a fluffy TV actress, is clear in her character and does a nice job.
It all works (except maybe Nolte).
It's a bit modernized: James had his characters "making love" via a quick glance; Northam drives Thurman towards orgasm with his hand in her crotch.
It's almost as if MIP decided to make a crisp and tough film version of James. Or perhaps they saw themselves in James and overreacted. In any case, it's a decent movie overall and mostly worth seeing.