The Portrait of a Lady | | Cast : | Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey, Martin Donovan (II) | | Director : | Jane Campion | | Studio : | Usa Films | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | December 24, 1996 | | DVD Released Date : | September 14, 1999 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | January 22, 2005 | | Summary | How does it end? | Content
 | Isabel, played by Nicole Kidman, is not sure what she wants. After her parents' death, she travels to England to live with her uncle and cousin. She leaves a suitor behind in Boston. The movie opens with a proposal of marriage by another suitor, which Isabel turns down. She is not sure whether she ever wants to marry. She wants to remain free and do great things.
Isabel has a unique relationship with her consumptive cousin. If anyone, she loves him. Her American suitor follows her to England in a failed attempt to woe her. Isabel says to leave her alone for another two years.
Her uncle dies leaving her a great fortune. She travels to Italy and meets a man (played by John Malcovich) she can't stop thinking about, even as she tours the world. After two years her American suitor calls again, and Isabel again turns him down. After marrying, Isabel soon learns that her husband only married her for her money, and her life turns very unhappy.
Isabel's step daughter, Pansy, falls in love, but her father won't let her marry her love. Pansy is afraid to disobey her father who insists on a match with a rich man. Isabel finds herself in the middle of the matchmaking, and is blamed when a suitor (one of her former suitors as well) becomes disinterested.
Isabel goes to her cousin on his death bed in England, leaving her husband against his wishes. This escape frees her. After a tearful good bye with her cousin, Isabel encounters her old American suitor once again. Played by Viggo Mortensen, his tender, unwavering love for Isabel is the highlight of the movie.
As always, Isabel runs from him, but in the last moment she turns. The movie leaves us hanging. The viewer must imagine the ending.
The movie is a bit of a tragedy. How could a woman surrounded by so much love make such a poor decision?
Definitely not light hearted. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 14, 2004 | | Summary | SOMEWHAT SPLAYED-OUT BUT GORGEOUS RETELLING OF THE CLASSIC | Content
| At about two and a half hours, Jane Campion tinkers at the bare threshold of monotony with this gorgeous period-piece, but she seldom falters in her ability to make her leading roles (The Piano, Sweetie) hypnotically compelling for all of their mulishness and tenacity.
Much has already been said about Malkovich and Kidman, both of whom I find were good if not superb, and Barbara Hershey, who brings just the right flavour of deviousness to her character. So I will focus instead on some common criticisms of this film.
Reviewers lament Campion's psychological simplifications of the theme, or her ungenerous treatment of Isabel as a sufferer of false consciousness who walks blindly into her own trap. On the contrary, I think the director is both adventurous and above-board in stating her revisionist projects from the very opening frame.
Henry James lived in the 1880s. His original work was intended as an exploration of what a woman might do if she were given independent means, and his story indicted women as being trapped by a weaker nature.
Exploring the same material Campion comes to a different, more ambiguous, but IMHO, also more interesting conclusion. She prefers to establish the film largely as Isabel's subjective experience, not as the story told by some omniscient narrator on whose shoulders falls the onus of proof. This is evidenced, for instance, by a sequence at the beginning where Isabel imagines making love with three different men at the same time.
For all its occasional flaws the film is at least internally consistent and proves to me yet again that Campion possesses cinematic imagination in spades. From her comes some of the boldest use of lighting and Black & White interludes I have seen in modern cinema.
Net net, don't let the negative reviews put you off, this is a very heart-warming experience even if a languorous one. Recommended rental for sure. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 30, 2004 | | Summary | Not for Low-Brows | Content
| This is one of my all-time favorite movies for various reasons but the top three reasons are Jane Campion, Nicole Kidman and Barbara Hershey. Jane Campion has taken this amazing book and found a way to convey an array emotions in a stunning visual manner. I scoffed at Nicole Kidman until I saw her in To Die For and then I saw this film and became a loyal follower. I don't care how bad the movie is, she is always worth watching. And anyone who isn't completely moved by Barbara Hershey trying to maintain composure while speaking to the back of someone who obviously is trying shun her should check their pulse. It is one of the most heartbreaking moments in acting I have ever seen. The cinematography is seductive and the music is trance inducing. Gorgeous costumes and amazing performances from everyone involved. Quite frankly a perfect film. If we're lucky there will be a Criterion version of this film with director's commentary someday. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 10, 2004 | | Summary | garbage | Content
| one of the worst movies i've ever seen. long, boring, and tiring. the acting on all counts was terrible and unconvincing and john malkovich can't his way out of a wet paper bag. save your money. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 04, 2004 | | Summary | Beautiful! | Content
| Nicole Kidman IS Isabel Archer! I don't understand why some reviewers here panned her acting as bad. She has never looked more beautiful than in this film. Her acting is also superb and expressive. This is the story about a young American woman (Isabel) who is just orphaned and is invited to stay with her rich relatives, the Touchetts in Victorian England. While in England, she is wooed by the rich Lord Warburton but she rejects his proposal because she wants to see the world and be free. When her uncle later dies, Isabel inherits a big sum of money and becomes truly rich and "independent". It is actually her cousin, the consumptive Ralph Touchett (who is secretly in love with her) who pressed his father to leave the money to Isabel without Isabel's knowledge. By this time, Isabel has met the scheming and mysterious Madame Merle (who plays Schubert on the piano most beautifully, I must add). M. Merle introduces Isabel to "her friend", Gilbert Osmond, a poor and widowed American staying in Italy who has a young daughter, Pansy. Both M. Merle and Osmond scheme to make Isabel marry Osmond so that he could have her money. Isabel innocently falls into their trap. Despite advice and dissuasions from her relatives, she eagerly marries Osmond and her life after that becomes a true nightmare. There is also a sub-plot involving Pansy's impossible love affair with Ned Rossum (played by Christian Bale). The accompanying booklet of the DVD provides valuable information on the making of the film and the cast profile e.g. the fact that Jane Campion finds this to be her hardest project. From the movie, it is easy to see that she had put in tremendous effort to bring Henry James' classic to life. Every shot, every scene and every movement of the characters is carefully and beautifully directed and filmed. The colors are so rich, the seem to jump out of the screen! And oh, the gorgeous costumes - especially Isabel Archer's! The casting is also perfect - notably, Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich who plays the villain, Osmond. Martin Donovan also embraces the difficult role of "Ralph Touchett" perfectly. My favourite scene is the one nearing the end involving a sobbing, heart-broken Isabel by the bedside of the dying Ralph. It is here that she realizes she loves him. This scene is so tender to watch. To me, this film showcases Nicole Kidman's best performance and it is THIS particular scene that clinches it. I got my copy of the DVD from Amazon.co.uk. If you love period dramas, this is a worthy title to have in your collection. Get the original soundtrack too - the music is absolutely gorgeous and dreamy, and is a fond favourite of mine. |
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