Cheap The Golden Bowl (DVD) (Jeremy Northam, Uma Thurman) (James Ivory) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Golden Bowl

Northam Makes the Film
Unlike other reviewers, I haven't read _The Golden Bowl_ and I hate Henry James. Perhaps that's why I adored this film. Visually, it is even more sumptuous than most Merchant and Ivory films. But what makes the movie more than just a pretty package is Jeremy Northam, who in addition to being stunningly handsome as ever, delivers a performance of depth and nuance. Along with his wonderful roles in _Emma_ and _The Winslow Boy_, the part of Amerigo should help establish Northam as one of the best actors around, up there in my mind with Kenneth Branagh and . . . well I can't think of many others as good. Kate Beckinsale is also astonishing in this film, doing a much better job of playing an ingenue who finds unknown inner strength in a time of need than Winona Ryder did in _The Age of Innocence_. And the ever-reliable Nick Nolte delivers a believable, complex performance. The only thing that made this film a four-star rather than five-star film in my book was the appalling performance of Uma Thurman, who is so bad that at the climax of the film, when she delivers what should be the most poignant line of the movie, I actually burst out laughing in the theatre (very embarrassing). I can't think why directors haven't noticed that Ms. Thurman is these days merely a pretty face, but the rest of the cast and the production was stellar, and the story gripped my interest throughout.

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Moves a bit langorously but the acting and scenery pays off
Based on a Henry James novel that I haven't read, The Golden Bowl moves at a leisurely pace but the acting and, especially, the scenery and costumes make the movie well worth your time if you are fan of this genre. The movie was made by the team of Merchant Ivory, who also made the well received Howard's End and Remains of the Day, both starring Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins. The Golden Bowl stars Uma Thurman as an American named Charlotte who had an affair with a poor Italian prince named Amerigo and played by Jeremy Northam (Emma and An Ideal Husband). Amerigo breaks off his relationship with Charlotte because he is marrying her rich American school friend Maggie played by Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbor). What completes this quadrangle is that Charlotte eventually ends up marrying Maggie's billionaire, art collector father played by Nick Nolte. So the quadrangle is set up with Amerigo and Charlotte having a relationship they try to keep hidden from Maggie and the ensuing results. Another good character in this movie is played by Anjelica Huston who played matchmaker by setting up Maggie and Amerigo. I won't go into more detail about the different interplay of relationships but the movie plays them all out very well. Plus, the movie takes place in the early 1900s and has very sumptous costumes and scenes that take place in castles in Europe. I enjoyed this movie the most because of the scenery and costumes but I also enjoyed the acting and character studies of the two relationships. The movie is a bit long at 2 hours and 10 minutes but well worth the time especially if you liked movies like Howard's End and it unfolds in much the same pace as a good classic novel.

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Jeremy Northam miscast
The only crack in the movie is the casting of Jeremy Northam as Amerigo. Northam, with his phony Italian accent, pretending to be an Italian, is incredible, a bit hard to take. Couldn't James Ivory have cast a real Italian actor in the role?