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  Film: A Good Woman June 12, 2005 Reporter : Peter Thompson Director: Mike Barker  Alvin Toffler introduced the concept of future shock in the early eighties and it hasn't got much better. Today we seem to be living with past, present and future shock all lumped in together. So it's little wonder that nostalgia for the not-so-distant past is as popular as ever. Italy has been scoring particularly well in the nostalgia stakes in recent years: A Month by the Lake, Tea with Mussolini, Under the Tuscan Sun and so forth. The producers of A Good Woman take us to the Italian Riviera in 1930. And for added insurance, they've borrowed the wit and wisdom of Oscar Wilde from his first popular success, Lady Windermere's Fan, of 1892. The film reverts to the play's original title and moves the action 40 years ahead from the salons of Victorian London to the sun-drenched terraces of Amalfi.So that we can better appreciate the Italian summer when we get there, there's a prologue introducing us to Mrs Stella Erlynne in less happy circumstances. Having run out of wealthy patrons in New York, she heads for the Continent with her sights set on a wealthy young American couple, Meg and Robert Windermere. The design team and cinematographer Ben Seresin make the most of their locations. Naturally, there's a window from which Stella can shout "buon giorno" to the passing natives. We also meet a chorus of jaded expatriates, mostly English and therefore at home with Oscar Wilde's dialogue, who keep up a running commentary on the subject of sex and marriage.  In this crumbling and decadent milieu, the young couple from the New World are like a pair of ripe peaches ready to be skinned and eaten. Scarlett Johansson need do little more than keep a straight face. It isn't long before her husband's friend Lord Darlington is trying to burn her down. Meanwhile, the Amalfi matrons go into overdrive when they spy Robert Windermere cultivating a liaison with the newly arrived Mrs Erlynne who has quickly been marked as a scarlet woman. As usual with Oscar Wilde, his story is essentially a strictly moral one with a luscious coating of wit and mischief. The actors are called upon to take charge of his words and make them their own. Rising to the challenge, Helen Hunt is nicely matched with Tom Wilkinson as Lord "Tuppy" Augustus as they slip into a September affair. English actors Mark Umbers and Stephen Campbell-Moore line up as Robert and Lord Darlington as the Windermere marriage runs aground on the twin shoals of pride and suspicion. For those not familiar with Wilde's play, the plot has some nice twists which ultimately explain why Mrs Erlynne takes such a personal interest in young Meg, opening up the question of who is really the good woman. And while screenwriter Howard Himelstein has adapted Wilde's play freely and can't always match the quality of the original, Oscar's genius still shines through.  A Good Woman is the kind of film that typically does rather better with audiences than it does with critics. After all, you know what you're letting yourself in for when you buy the ticket and this one is guaranteed not to disappoint. It's a gentle but nonetheless intelligent excursion into a rosy and comforting bypass, away from the furious action of the expressway.For movie session times, visit: ninemsn's Movie Guide |
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