The Golden Bowl
(2000)
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THE GOLDEN BOWL is Merchant-Ivory's adaptation of the Henry James novel of romantic torment--the novel James named as his favorite. The title refers to a beautiful crystal bowl encrusted with gold, which conceals a single imperceptible flaw--a small crack. The bowl is a simple, effective metaphor for the seeming perfection of the relationships in the film. Some characters in THE GOLDEN BOWL see the hidden flaw, and keep their knowledge of its worthlessness to themselves. Others do not see the flaw, and live their lives feeling that they should be happy, not understanding the root of their unease. THE GOLDEN BOWL features excellent performances, particularly from Nick Nolte as the American billionaire Adam Verver, and Kate Beckinsale as Maggie, his devoted daughter. Maggie marries an Italian prince (Jeremy Northam) who has a secret past with her best friend (Uma Thurman). The film includes the lavishly precise production design expected of Merchant-Ivory works. But the dark emotional complexity of the source novel, combined with the filmmakers's aesthetically bold inclusion of archival footage from early 20th Century urban America, give the film an edge--a palpable sense of the underlying dread of industrialization in the New World. |
This dazzling dramatisation of Henry James's tale of love and treachery marks a return to form for the film-making team of Ismail Merchant, James Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Kate Beckinsale is superb as Maggie Verver, daughter of millionaire Adam Verver (Nick Nolte) and new wife of impoverished Italian Prince Amerigo (Jeremy Northam, whose Cornetto accent undermines the rest of the acting on show here). Her lack of guile is offset by manipulative Charlotte Stant (Uma Thurman), who, jilted by Amerigo, marries Verver senior in an attempt to stay near him. As infidelity rears its ugly head, the four protagonists struggle to maintain their status within respectable society. Elegant, eloquent and imbued with turn-of-the-century opulence and social mores, the movie still has enough emotional clout to give it universal appeal.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Stolid, stately, uninvolving period drama that rarely suggests any depth of emotion under its formal surface; it is not helped by the obtrusively nudging musical score.
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