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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Age of Innocence Lost,
By John Anderson "Faulknerian" (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Children [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This adaptation of a late novel by Edith Wharton is of interest for fans of Wharton and of the cast that includes leads Ben Kingsley as Martin Boyne and Kim Novak as Rose Sellars with excellent supporting work by Rosemary Leach, Geraldine Chaplin, and Joe Don Baker and cameo appearances by Rupert Graves, Karen Black, and Britt Ekland. However, the pacing is ponderously slow and the film is clumsily edited down to 90 minutes for video from a presumably longer cut that never saw theatrical release. Kingsley is fine as a repressed engineer in search of emotional adventures but Novak is overwrought at times. The film follows the novel fairly closely. Wharton biographer Hermione Lee says the novel is Wharton's best after "Age of Innocence," but the novel is uneven--the group of seven children set adrift by their parents various divorces and remarriages are grating when they are supposed to charm--but Boyne's intricate self-delusions are well portrayed. The film at least captures the milieu of Jazz Age privilege well.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Flawed but worthwhile Wharton adaptation,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Children [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This is an uneven but rewarding film of a 1928 novel by Edith Wharton, now far less known than her earlier "The Age of Mirth," "Ethan Frome" or "The Age of Innocence." Unlike these masterpieces, "The Children" has a European setting, and most of the characters are (like Wharton herself) American expatriates. A chance meeting between a middle-aged bachelor named Martin Boyne, and family of seven children, the Wheaters, sets the story in motion. Bit by bit, Martin finds himself entangled in the welfare of the neglected children, and in particular strongly drawn to 15-year-old Judith. This new attachment complicates and disrupts his long love affair with Rose Sellars, who as a recent widow is now free to marry him. The tragicomic consequences of Martin's confusion are ultimately devastating to him.
The strong points of the film include the work of the 3 lead actors, Ben Kingsley (Martin), Kim Novak (Rose) and Siri Neal (Judith); neither Kingsley nor Novak may be ideally cast, but they are both charismatic performers who generate a great deal of electricity in their scenes together. Some of the actors in supporting roles, however, aren't particularly well served by the erratic direction of Tony Palmer; also, there's at least one piece of inadequate casting, and English actor Rupert Graves's role as the children's tutor has ended up on the cutting room floor: he appears for about 10 seconds of screen time, and has no lines. There are other signs of haste and economy in both the shooting and editing stages, so it's unfair to judge the gaps in the screenplay by Timberlake Wertenbaker (basically sound and intelligent) too harshly. Other plusses include some beautiful Alpine scenery, and Palmer's witty use on the soundtrack of classical music (Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams). With all its frustrations and faults, "The Children" is interesting and attention-holding, and Wharton enthusiasts (at least) will definitely want to see it.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
NEVER ORDERED THIS,
This review is from: Children [VHS] (VHS Tape)
NEVER ORDERED THIS AMAZON YOU ARE LOUSY!!!
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