Customer Reviews

The Wings of the Dove

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Screenwriter Hossein Amini has abandoned the dense prose and convoluted syntax of Henry James's most complex and difficult novel and created instead a fresh, emotionally nuanced, and psychologically astute script, nominated for an Academy Award. With a remarkable cast, breathtaking cinematography (Eduardo Serra), and a soft background score filled with strings, harp, and piano (Edward Shearmur), Director Iain Softley has created a magnificent film that succeeds in being emotionally affecting, intellectually stimulating, and aesthetically rewarding, a film in which every element contributes to a satisfying whole.

Remaining true to the story of James's novel, the film introduces Kate Croy (Helena Bonham Carter) as the beautiful but impoverished niece of a wealthy socialite (Charlotte Rampling), bent upon finding her a husband of means, but Kate must sever ties with her opium-addicted father and end her relationship with Merton Densher (Linus Roache), a penniless journalist. A friend of Kate, heiress Millie Theale (Alison Elliot), invites her to Venice, where Millie insists on living life to the fullest even as she is dying of an unnamed disease. There Kate introduces Millie to Densher, to whom she is immediately attracted. Kate desperately suggests to Densher that he pursue Millie, who may, upon her death, leave Densher wealthy enough to marry Kate.

Without such a brilliant cast, such a story would resemble the worst of melodramas, but Bonham Carter (nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress) creates in Kate a character so tormented by her love that one understands her deviousness to be the result of desperation. Alison Elliot creates a Millie whose strength and desire to live life are so strong that her passion for Densher is plausible, and her willingness to go to his room at night becomes a courageous statement, rather than a maudlin gesture. Linus Roache as Densher is phlegmatic enough that he can be manipulated by Kate, but he shows backbone in his desire to honor Millie and avoids the pitfall of being considered weak.

The acting is subtle, understated, and profoundly affecting, with many revealing close-ups, and emotions conveyed through gestures, body language, and occasionally, mere eye contact. The Academy Award-nominated cinematography, especially in Venice, features individual elements in one scene blending into the succeeding scene, bridges framing action on the canals, and a dramatic use of darkness and light. The Oscar-nominated costuming (Sandy Powell) adds to the mood and atmosphere, with the music providing an effective bridge between scenes. Every aspect of the film works, and not a word or gesture is wasted in this quietly presented drama of great power. Mary Whipple

In 'The Wings of the Dove', as in 'The Portrait of a Lady', Henry James offers us his popular theme of class-conscious, fortune-hunting Brits exploiting the innocent wealthy American girl. Only this time the action is viewed from the perspective of the victimizer who becomes her own victim.

Helena Bonham Carter as Kate Croy the English adventuress, Linus Roache as Merton Densher her impecunious journalist lover, and Allison Elliot as Millie Theale their intended victim, are the principal actors in this drama of psychological twists and turns.

In the opening scene Carter, swathed from head to foot in Victorian attire, exudes an aura of compelling eroticism as she trysts with her lover, Merton, in a crowded tram-car. In the film's closing scene, in bed with him stark naked her whole body reflects the despair of her plots gone wrong. In between this sensual opening and this depressing conclusion her gorgeous face is a telling kaleidoscope of emotions. Carter can register more with her eyes than most actors can with a whole script, and the camera under Ian Softley's direction lingers upon her face as Carter's convincing expressions underscore the nuances of the action.

As Kate's plot congeals and unravels with her own conflicting emotions Carter projects a welter of pragmatic and sympathetic motives. Trapped by her love for middleclass Merton, her devotion to her penniless father, and her ambition for wealth and position, Kate inveigles herself into a close relationship with Millie, the wealthy winsome American girl making her Grand Tour even as she is dying of cancer. Millie, warm-hearted and brave, falls in love with Merton at first sight without knowing that he is Kate's lover. Reluctantly, Merton allows himself to be used to satisfy the girl's need for love. In an utterly moving scene at the climax of the film, Millie reveals the depths of her own character when the realization of how she has been duped is forced upon her.

Millie dies and Merton is devastated by his own treachery. "If I had wings like a dove I would fly away and be at rest," are the words that fill him at her funeral. Director Softley touches deftly upon this moving scene and moves into the denouement. Now Kate has what she wanted, Merton and the fortune, which Millie has left to her. But Millie has left something else as well...the enfolding wings of the dove.

In Carter's hands Kate is never a really unsympathetic character, and in the end she is a truly tragic one.

I have been seeing previews for "The Wings of the Dove" for years on various DVDs that I have rented and finally got around to watching this adaptation of the Henry James novel. When I finished watching it the thing that struck me was how the attempt to modernize the story worked both for and against what James had written. Now, what makes this a particularly perspective to take on the film is that the adaptation by Hossein Amini moves the time frame of the story up eight years to 1910. That might seem a minor change, one scarcely worthy of note, but in 1902 good old Queen Victoria had not been in her tomb a year and the age that bears her name was still on its last legs (more to the point, James had been working on the novel for years, so it was clearly written during the Victorian Age). When you change the setting to 1910 it is then the end of the Edwardian Age, which makes a big difference, especially from the standpoint of English morality.

Kate Croy (Helena Bonham-Carter) has taken as her lover Merton Densher (Linus Roache), who has neither the position nor the fortune to win her hand. Kate's father (Michael Gambon) is destitute, and they both depend on the good graces of her dour and demanding Aunt Maude (Charlotte Rampling), who forbids the union and has a rich man in mind for Kate who seems willing to marry for love but would like it even more if money was involved. When Kate seeks independence from her aunt she enters the circle of Millie Theale (Alison Elliott), an American girl who is known as "the richest orphan in the world" and who is seeing the world before she dies, and a plan is hatched. Merton will woo Millie, marry her before she dies, and inherit her fortune, at which point he can marry Kate and the life they envision will become reality. I think you see it coming from a mile away that Merton will fall for Millie before she dies, and that there is a price to be paid for such an undertaken.

James makes this story even more interesting because Millie harbors little if any illusions as to what Kate and Merton are up to. Kate tells Merton their plan will succeed because she knows how Millie loves, but she never realizes that the same is true for the American girl. Besides, Millie is touring Europe on her own agenda, which is to drink deeply from the cup of life before it is untimely ripped from her lips. For her, Merton's attentions are something else to be experienced. Perhaps she knows that he will play the part so well that at some point he will stop acting, and perhaps it does not matter to her because when she is dead in grave the difference will not matter a whit.

The shift in period matters because the master plan here runs more against the grain of Victorian morality than it does compared to the looser standards that followed. Within another decade the English would be fighting a war involving machine guns, poisoned gas, bombs dropped from airplanes, and a new array of modern horrors. Move the story forward another eight years and we would expect Kate's character to be urging Merton to murder Millie, which would actually make her more like the Kate in the novel than what we find in this 1997 film.

In the end, the fact that Kate and Millie like each other and that Millie implicitly acknowledges and accepts the deal that is represented by Merton, makes a big difference. The question is not whether the plan will work, but what will Merton and Kate be like when it is over and what will have happened to both their relationship and the plans that they have made. Millie is in love with life, and some of that rubs off on Merton, so that he is not the man Kate sent off into the arms of another women. In his attempt to get what he wants, he comes even closer to something he can never have and in the final scene all that Kate can offer to him seems rather hollow.

The performances in "The Wings of the Dove" are, for the most part, beautifully understated. Bonham-Carter was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, as was Amini's adapted screenplay, Eduardo Serra's cinematography, and Sandy Powell's costume design. Ultimately, I think Amini's decision to move the story forward from the end of one age to another, is on the mark and the changes that required in James' novel work if for no other reason than having Kate know how much she is risking in sending Merton to Millie's side from the very start makes the human drama much richer.

Henry James had the ability to develop intricate characters with extraordinary psychological depth, but his prose style is so dense (his friend Edith Wharton admitted that in places his writing is almost imcomprehensible) that few people are willing to dig down to the stratum of pure gold. What this beautiful film does is to excavate for us. It is a tale about a good person, someone who doesn't want to harm anyone, driven to manipulate the hearts of her lover and her best friend to get what she needs. Helena Bonham Carter brilliantly portrays a woman strong enough to withstand anything but her own feelings of guilt. I think that this story, written late in James's life, of someone on the outside looking in on a world of security and love is his story. James is Kate. The envy of Milly for who and what she is is palpable. Milly's money permits her to be honest and good, but her sweetness, in turn, makes her desirable to Merton. Milly is who Kate/James would like to be. On a less armchair psychological level, this is an incredibly romantic movie. Clothes before 1914 were more beautiful and just plain sexier. Stolen kisses -- and beyond -- really thrilled because they were so dangerous.

Rarely has a film of such extraordinary visual beauty reached the profound emotional depths of this magnificently acted period film from Iain Softley. Based on the novel by Henry James, cinematographer Eduardo Serra sets a table of beauty and elegance while screenwriter Houssein Amini serves up dishes of love, passion and desire, all arranged in their proper order by director Softley, creating an unforgettable dining experience.

Helena Bonham Carter is Kate, a passionate beauty in love with Martin (Linus Roache), a man without money. Charlotte Rampling is her rich aunt, who may force her to marry well, but not for love. Kate has a fire burning beneath her dark beauty, however, and when fate gives her an opportunity to show Martin how she loves, a dangerous journey down winding currents is begun, and neither she nor Martin will be prepared for what awaits them at the river's end.

Alison Elliot is simply marvelous as Millie, her finest role since "The Spitfire Grill." Millie is a charming American girl of great wealth reaching out to touch life before it passes by. She and Kate will become fast and inseparable friends, but Millie's attraction to Martin and a secret discovered by Kate will set in tenuous motion a plan to solve all their problems. When the maneuvering of lives like chess pieces involves both the human heart and someone as special as Millie, however, unforseen complications can arise.

Helena Bonham Carter may have received all the nominations as the beautiful and passionate Kate, but Alison Elliot's portrayel of the sweet and open Millie, rich but lonely, and desparate for love, deserved an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination as well. Italy is beautifully recreated from the period in a film of both depth and beauty.

This film is a true cinematic masterpiece. A gratuitous scene with Carter near the end of this film seems out of place, but can not detract from its beauty. Fine Italian lace is gently lifted back to reveal an emotionally naked look at the human heart. It is substance with beauty and beauty with substance, and is not to be missed.

The movie is great but if you're buying it to own a high-quality, pristine copy to watch over and over again, you'll be disappointed.

The DVD image is covered with white specks, dust, and long hairs. They appear every second or two and are very noticeable even at full-speed. I would expect a VHS tape to have better image quality than this.

In addition, I couldn't get the "special features" menu to work on two of my DVD players (although one of my friends has no problem). This continued even after I exchanged the disc for a new one.

If you absolutely must own this movie on DVD, then you have no other choice. But for the others, I would warn that this disc does not nearly match the quality of the other 95% of...discs available.

Three reasons that this film shines:

1. An excellent screenplay that captures the gist of the novel and without getting bogged down.

2. Alison Elliot and Linus Roache outperform Helena Bonham Carter, no small feat, to create a special love.

3. Venice, shot so as to seem completely in the period of the story, makes it clear why this city was (and is) special.

Adapted from Henry James' book and pushed forward into the 20th century, this is one of those rare period dramas that lulls you into thinking that you know what's coming and then pulls the rug from under you. The story has Kate (Bonham Carter) carrying out a love affair with Merton (Roache), although her aunt and benefactor thinks that marrying him would be below her. So it's a case of what does Kate want more - love or money? Pursued by sleazy Lord Mark she uses her friendship with millionaire Millie to fly off to Venice. And it's here that the plot takes a turn that few will see coming, as Kate's plots to have the best of both worlds become gradually darker as she forces Merton and Millie together.

What stays with you though is the bleakness of the movie, as Kate's corrupt plans corrupt any hope of future happiness, and it's a brave film that offers up a dark ending with no redemption in sight. The performances from all concerned are so perfectly judged that it will, in its last half, destroy your faith in basic human goodness and the truth in love. Bonham Carter and Roache are particularly impressive, playing the conflict between wanting to do what's right and doing what benefits them astutely. Moreover, there's a sex scene that is completely necessary to the story, tasteful and beautifully full of desperation, due in no small part to the acting. Surely there are few movies out there that can say that.

In a lot of ways this reminded me of the later `House Of Mirth', so if intelligent period dramas are what you like then this is a fine example.

I love the premise of this story, very intriguing: a rich young woman named Milly is dying and her best friend Kate senses that Milly is in love with her boyfriend, Martin, so out of compassion (and hopes that she will leave Martin all her money when she dies), Kate works out a calculating plan to get Martin and Milly together. One problem, they start falling for each other, and Kate starts getting jealous, afraid that she will lose Martin's love. The last sequence of the film was riveting, and the final scene was simply heart-stopping. It'll make you gulp and sigh.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

Why, oh, why can't American films take a hint from these wonderful British films? No explosions. No special effects. No half-naked jiggly girls to keep the teenage boys happy. Just solid first-rate acting. Intelligent dialog. Beautiful scenery. Is it really too much to ask for?

This is a gorgeous movie. Helena Bonham Carter is excellent, as usual. You can read the plot summaries from other reviewers here, so I won't elaborate. But I do urge you to rent or buy this movie. It's a wonderful story of love, betrayal, sex (yup, there's some of that), guilt, and innocence lost. It's much more than a mere "chick flick".