Product Details

• Actors: Liam Neeson, Gil Rood, Tate Donovan, Stephen Mendillo, Phil Garran
• Directors: John Madden
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Miramax
• VHS Release Date: May 21, 1996
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302805406
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,192 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #22 in	Video > Drama > Love & Romance > Star-Crossed Lovers
  #28 in	Video > Drama > Love & Romance > Infidelity & Betrayal
  #29 in	Video > Drama > Love & Romance > Love Story

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Here's the film of a novel nobody liked in high school (but probably succumbed to when they read it in later life, as they should). Based on the book by Edith Wharton, it's one of those repressed romances of longing and regret carried out in real time and real life. Liam Neeson plays the humble Ethan, manipulated into marrying a plain and sickly woman (Joan Allen, every bit as good as she is in The Contender), who still manages to dominate him. When she grows so ill that Ethan requires help to care for her, they import her poor cousin (Patricia Arquette), who sparks thoughts in Ethan that never occurred to him with his wife. Neeson has a great fire within, as he confronts an array of possibilities that simply remain out of reach because the alternative is unthinkable in this tight-knit New England community. Arquette bubbles with life, while Allen can freeze blood at 100 paces with one of her icy glances. Slow-moving at times but worth it for the final payoff. Directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love). --Mark Englehart

From The New Yorker

Edith Wharton's novel was published in 1911, and it has taken a long time to reach the screen. Not long enough, though. John Madden's version, written by Richard Nelson, is a dull and dutiful affair; there's no reason that a movie should stay faithful to a text, but in this case the adaptation has taken everything that's woeful and wintry about the book and left behind the excitement-all the taut sexual restraint, and the headlong death wish of the final sled ride. Liam Neeson plays Ethan, with Joan Allen as his shrewish wife, Zeena, and Patricia Arquette as Mattie Silver, who tempts him into tragedy. Of these, only Neeson grips your attention; he lumbers through the film like a suffering Samson-somewhere in there you can see the ghost of old power and passion. You have to go back to Boris Karloff to discover a similar blend of brutishness and delicacy. If only the rest of the movie could pitch itself up to Neeson's level; this is cinema on its best behavior, guaranteed to wear you down. Back to the book. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Are you a Born Romantic ?, January 25, 2001

By	KelB - See all my reviews

If you love Romance, you simply must have this video! Yes, Ethan and Mattie are what we call "star crossed lovers" in a way, so all the more reason why their courtship escalates so far beyond the mundane.

I promise you this: there are at least two love scenes in this film that are so amorous and seductive that you will most certainly rewind the tape just to reassure yourself that it was accomplished completely without nudity.

Liam Neeson (Ethan) is at his expected best, portraying a character who is astonishingly sexy and lovable regardless of his physical deformity or intensely tragic circumstances. And Patricia Arquette (Mattie) exquisitely personifies a beautiful and kind young woman approaching her first peak of sexuality.

All of the actors are wonderful and the film follows the book very closely. Buy the video, read the book, and then if you are a true Romantic you will watch the video again and again.

Do read the previous reviews from other customers, I enjoyed reading all of them.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Neeson Outdoes the Book!, November 18, 2000

By	Sean Ares Hirsch (Swan Lake, New York) - See all my reviews

For those of you who read my review on this book, you know that I gave the book 4 stars. Well, Neeson outdid the book! Neeson takes the book a BIG step farther. We see Ethan in his disfigured and isolated state, and then time goes backwards and we see how Ethan went from a somewhat normal state to this tragic and lamentable state. The priest adds a welcome touch of sympathy. The images are outstanding, and the background music flatters the images well. Comic relief moments are inserted in this lamentable tragedy well. One thing I must say about this movie is that even though it does not have lots of action or effects, IT IS NEVER BORING!! Ethan's quarrles with his wife are memorable, and his reluctant affair is unforgettable. There is even a wonderful scene in the middle that foreshadows Ethan's crippled state, the hostility between Ethan's wife and the housekeeper, and the tree that changes everyone's life for the worse. One brief, but vital scene is when Ethan and his wife argue bitterly, and the housekeeper along with one of Ethan's helpers overhear it. The final scene is likely to draw tears even from the most experienced person in drama and tragedy. Neeson deserves much credit for turning a 4 star book into an exquisite masterpiece. With all the movies I have seen, I can not boast of knowing more than 16 exquisite masterpieces, and this is one of them.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent acting.Beautiful localle.magnificent score!, January 3, 1999

By A Customer

Wonderfully acted rendition of this classic American novel.Liam NeesonPatricia Arquette and Joan Allen areexcellent in bringing this tale of truelove and betrayal to life.Rachel Portman's mournful yet beautiful score lends itself to the story as well as thebreathtaking vistas of Kings Mountain inVermont.A must see!