Susan Granger’s review of “THE GOLDEN BOWL’ (Lions Gate Films)
Based on Henry James’ highly complex novel, this multi-layered turn-of-the-century drama revolves around America’s first billionaire Adam Verver (Nick Nolte), who is obsessed with collecting Europe’s treasures to adorn the museum he plans to build in his hometown, cryptically called American City. Meticulously directed by James Ivory and sumptuously produced by Ismail Merchant, the film begins with a historical flashback to a double-murder as an Italian Renaissance prince discovers his young wife in bed with his oldest son. Then it’s 1905, as the current, impoverished prince, Amerigo (Jeremy Northam), is showing his now-dilapidated castle to Charlotte (Uma Thurman), a beautiful American. They’re in love but, alas, she, too is penniless. Unwilling to sacrifice his ancestral home, he marries an heiress, Verver’s daughter, Maggie (Kate Beckinsale), who is Charlotte’s school-chum. To complicate matters more, gruff Adam, a widower, falls in love with the much-younger Charlotte. Manipulator that she is, she marries him, convinced that, eventually, she will be able to rekindle the prince’s love. Her smug scheme works, particularly since Maggie has an unusually close relationship with her father. They’re so inseparable, in fact, that their spouses’ adulterous trysts seem inevitable. The titular – and symbolic – Golden Bowl is a magnificent chalice that has a barely discernible flaw. But Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s slow-building screenplay lacks James’ subtlety, and Uma Thurman’s motives are transparent from the beginning. Thus, not only is the suspense diluted but there’s a discernible emotional distance between the characters and the audience. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Golden Bowl” is a culturally captivating 8, emerging as an elegant soap-opera.
