mruzick3
09-04-2003, 07:54 PM
Okay, so since none of you wussies will step up and review this film I'll go ahead and give it a try. I liked this movie. There, I've said it. And before all of you give me that "how drunk were you" response let me say that I read the reviews before I saw the film and knew it has had a lack-luster reception. 'Le Divorce' is the new adaptation from the Merchant/Ivory team. They have seen better days, critically speaking. The film follows two half-sisters in Paris, Roxie (Naomi Watts) who has lived, married, and made a family in France and Isabel (Kate Hudson) who has just flown in from Santa Barbara to live, work, and check on her sister. From there we find out about Roxie's French family, the husband who is walking out on her for a Russian woman who is also married, a painting that may or may not be worth a fortune, Isabel's attraction to much older/French men and red crocodile skin, and the enormous gap between French and American culture.
This film quite adequetly translates the period genre into a contemporary setting. Ivory and his writing/production team are not on unfamiliar ground. The social drama/comedy has been explored in their previous films with close attention to the morals of a given time period. To use the novel's contemporary backdrop for 'Le Divorce' was a challenge and one that worked nicely in this film. Think of the interplay between the stuffy English travelers and the brutish Florence innkeepers in 'A Room with a View.' Sisters Roxie and Isabel are seen as foreigners no matter how long they have lived in France or how much they absorb. Isabel absorbs the most, as it is, and with her commitment to being her Uncle-in-law's new mistress and is indoctrinated into the highest of French culture. With a gifted sense of grace, Hudson flows through every scene effortlessly. Watts had the more daunting task of playing a deeply conflicted mother trying to save her family, wife trying to save her marriage, and reluctant daughter-in-law trying to assert her own independence (an offending trait in a French wife.)
The set designs are lavish and pleasing to all the senses (French food is paraded through one scene that leaves the audience wanting to throw their popcorn in the nearest dumpster.) The dialogue is delicate and caters to an adult mind. The actors have all done their job with dignity and refined accomplishment. Especially surprising was Glenn Close playing the well-versed Olivia Pace that serves as Isabel's future coscience always giving her a knowing grin at obviously naive choices and feelings. The only problem that I had with the film is Matthew Modine's character as the jealous husband of Roxie's husband's Russian mistress (did you get all that.) His is a whiny, unstable, and (as it turned out for the film) cop out role. In more capable hands Modine's character could have provided a more comic foil to ruffle up the perfect place setting Ivory has presented (think of Lyle Lovett's creepiness in Altman's 'The Player.')
I should say that I have not read Diane Johnson's novel but my wife (who was with me...took me to see the film) assures me that the book was much better. Isn't that always the case though. As a film in its own right I enjoyed it and thought it worked. Well, here's to my first review and SALUT!
*** (that's 3 stars out of five if we're still using the same scale)
________________________________
Mike Ruzicka
This film quite adequetly translates the period genre into a contemporary setting. Ivory and his writing/production team are not on unfamiliar ground. The social drama/comedy has been explored in their previous films with close attention to the morals of a given time period. To use the novel's contemporary backdrop for 'Le Divorce' was a challenge and one that worked nicely in this film. Think of the interplay between the stuffy English travelers and the brutish Florence innkeepers in 'A Room with a View.' Sisters Roxie and Isabel are seen as foreigners no matter how long they have lived in France or how much they absorb. Isabel absorbs the most, as it is, and with her commitment to being her Uncle-in-law's new mistress and is indoctrinated into the highest of French culture. With a gifted sense of grace, Hudson flows through every scene effortlessly. Watts had the more daunting task of playing a deeply conflicted mother trying to save her family, wife trying to save her marriage, and reluctant daughter-in-law trying to assert her own independence (an offending trait in a French wife.)
The set designs are lavish and pleasing to all the senses (French food is paraded through one scene that leaves the audience wanting to throw their popcorn in the nearest dumpster.) The dialogue is delicate and caters to an adult mind. The actors have all done their job with dignity and refined accomplishment. Especially surprising was Glenn Close playing the well-versed Olivia Pace that serves as Isabel's future coscience always giving her a knowing grin at obviously naive choices and feelings. The only problem that I had with the film is Matthew Modine's character as the jealous husband of Roxie's husband's Russian mistress (did you get all that.) His is a whiny, unstable, and (as it turned out for the film) cop out role. In more capable hands Modine's character could have provided a more comic foil to ruffle up the perfect place setting Ivory has presented (think of Lyle Lovett's creepiness in Altman's 'The Player.')
I should say that I have not read Diane Johnson's novel but my wife (who was with me...took me to see the film) assures me that the book was much better. Isn't that always the case though. As a film in its own right I enjoyed it and thought it worked. Well, here's to my first review and SALUT!
*** (that's 3 stars out of five if we're still using the same scale)
________________________________
Mike Ruzicka