Product Details

• Actors: Uma Thurman, Jeremy Northam, Kate Beckinsale, James Fox, Anjelica Huston
• Directors: James Ivory
• Writers: Henry James, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
• Producers: Fabrizio Mosca, Ismail Merchant, Paul Bradley, Richard Hawley
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Vidmark / Trimark
• VHS Release Date: November 6, 2001
• Run Time: 130 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005OSOZ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #237,098 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Based on the Henry James novel, The Golden Bowl earns a regal place in the long line of lavish Ismail Merchant and James Ivory productions casting spectacular mise en scène in the lead role. The crumbling Italian palazzo that opens the film and the magnificent English country houses that encase the unfolding drama play, as always, an intrinsic part in the ruptured psyche of whatever gentry Merchant and Ivory have elected to pursue. In this case, divided attention is paid to erstwhile glories and turn-of-the-century ambitions. Impoverished Italian prince Amerigo (Jeremy Northam) is to marry heiress Maggie Verver (Kate Beckinsale), school friend of Charlotte (Uma Thurman), who in turn weds American industrialist and art collector Adam Verver (Nick Nolte), Maggie's father. Amerigo and Charlotte, having previously been lovers, are helpless to resist an adulterous affair. A study of life's covetous designs failing to imitate the perceived perfections of art, The Golden Bowl is likewise flawed but alluring. --Fionn Meade

From The New Yorker

Henry James made easy-no small task, given the complications of the plot. Prince Amerigo (Jeremy Northam) marries Maggie Verver (Kate Beckinsale), whose father, Adam Verver (Nick Nolte), then marries Maggie's friend Charlotte Stant (Uma Thurman). No one, needless to say, has a clue what anyone else is up to, let alone what happened before the marriage craze set in. In the book, such innocence seems like one of the infinite velleities of its atmosphere; onscreen, you have half a mind to slap the characters awake. This is a Merchant-Ivory production, so it looks as luscious as ever, though the actors display an unaccustomed shudder of neurosis; the honorable exception is Nick Nolte, who gives a growling depth to his depiction of the self-made man. Not much happens, although it is cunningly camouflaged as excess; why have a boring party, the film suggests, when you can make it a costume party and have people wear suits of armor? James would have fainted with surprise, although the sight of Uma Thurman in a sheer camisole might have forced him to revise his entire theory of fiction. With Angelica Huston as the voice of disapproval. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Northam Makes the Film, October 10, 2001

By 

Beth Johnston - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Golden Bowl (DVD)

Unlike other reviewers, I haven't read _The Golden Bowl_ and I hate Henry James. Perhaps that's why I adored this film. Visually, it is even more sumptuous than most Merchant and Ivory films. But what makes the movie more than just a pretty package is Jeremy Northam, who in addition to being stunningly handsome as ever, delivers a performance of depth and nuance. Along with his wonderful roles in _Emma_ and _The Winslow Boy_, the part of Amerigo should help establish Northam as one of the best actors around, up there in my mind with Kenneth Branagh and . . . well I can't think of many others as good. Kate Beckinsale is also astonishing in this film, doing a much better job of playing an ingenue who finds unknown inner strength in a time of need than Winona Ryder did in _The Age of Innocence_. And the ever-reliable Nick Nolte delivers a believable, complex performance. The only thing that made this film a four-star rather than five-star film in my book was the appalling performance of Uma Thurman, who is so bad that at the climax of the film, when she delivers what should be the most poignant line of the movie, I actually burst out laughing in the theatre (very embarrassing). I can't think why directors haven't noticed that Ms. Thurman is these days merely a pretty face, but the rest of the cast and the production was stellar, and the story gripped my interest throughout.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, flawless adapation of Henry James novel, May 26, 2001

By 

"igabriela" - See all my reviews

To do this magnificent film justice, I can only quote from Kevin Thomas' review in the Los Angeles Times: " "The Golden Bowl" is yet another Merchant Ivory triumph, with impeccable performances and equally flawless, grand period settings. As in previous films, the venerable team makes the past as immediate and vital as the present, summoning a vanquished world in such detail and perception that it is possible to see ourselves in people and places that would seem far removed."

As worthy of Henry James, the dialog of the screen adaptation is brilliant: the intrigue and suspense are developed by the clever double entendres as the characters eloquently let one another know they are aware of the duplicity in their relationships while never speaking overtly of their suspicions. Nick Nolte displays impressive, nuanced subtlety in his acting; Uma Thurman, as always, is elegant and incandescent, her acting perfection.

The settings in Italian castles and British grand estates alone are worth a trip to the theater; the costumes are opulent and beautifully designed. This film held our undivided attention from the first moment to the end. If you like films of this genre, do not miss it. "The Golden Bowl" is one of the best movies we have seen in many years, worthy of the top Oscar nominations.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Film, Terrific Adaptation, September 24, 2004

By 

Lev Raphael (Okemos, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Golden Bowl (DVD)

I'm a bit puzzled by all the hostile comments on this movie.

I've read The Golden Bowl five times, at least. I have also seen most film and TV adaptations of James novels and novellas done since the 1970s and this one stands up very well under the double test: is it faithful to the book's spirit, is it a good film?

I loved this movie, have seen it twice and given it as a gift. I found it perfectly cast, filmed, and paced. TGB is a long dense intensely internal book but it has been faithfully rendered by a screenwriter who boldly brought the violence and threat at the core of the book forward in a fascinating sort of prologue, and made one of the book's most famous images, the Pagoda, part of a nightmare. Each time I see these sections I admire her ingenuity.

Uma Thurman broke my heart as the passionate, lonely, sensual Europeanized American who cannot have what she wants when she wants it. Yes, the part was played differently by Gayle Hunnicutt in the estimable British TV version, but so what? Thurman works because she makes it so clear how much more she wants Amerigo than the opposite and her verbal rebellion at one point is explosive (in a Jamesian way, of course).

Jeremy Northam is suitably lordly and devilishly handsome. His accent sounds just right to me, having been around Europeans who learned English from English speakers: the mix is sometimes inconsistent though charming.

Kate Beckinsale is just right as the limited innocent whose innocence is a kind of cruelty and watching her grow up, make the sacrifices she needs to while fighting through the pain of terrible awareness was haunting. Nick Nolte was sublime as the phlegmatic wealthy collector. You feel the roughness behind his suavity and the world-weariness. He's got all these amazing obejcts but what does he really have? His devotion to his daughter is pitched just right.

I loved how the film often cast him and Kate as isolated amid their stupefyinbgly beautiful collections. I loved how there are scenes opening the movie that take us back to the Prince's Renaissance forebears and that create dramatic irony when she re-enters the orbit of Maggie and Adam.

I was captivated by this movie even more the second viewing than the first, and even though the book is so familiar to me that I quote from it now and then. I own the Gayle Hunnicutt version and am glad there are too such stylish, intelligent, and very different takes on one of our greatest novels in English.