This little gem of a movie from 2004 is well worth watching. Starring Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Wilkinson, the film’s script boasts dialogue by Oscar Wilde. The only problem: the story is not wild and daring the way the movie poster suggests. Instead, it is sweet and romantic and showcases the mother/daughter bond over and above any sexual escapades. “Seduction, sex, scandal,” the movie poster reads. But there is none of that in this film. What we have here is more like gossip, innuendo and deep affection. It is in fact a farce from the 19th century.
This is a movie produced in 2004 that is set in 1930, but written in 1892. I loved it from the start, before I noticed in the closing credits that it was based on the play by Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan. The screenplay was by Howard Himelstein, but the dialogue comes straight out of Oscar Wilde.
Is this a great movie? No. But it is a good one. Some films are like vast, tumultuous novels. Dr. Zhivago is one of those. In fact, the movie Dr. Zhivago was longer than the book. Some movies are shorter and more slim. The Seven Percent Solution is deeply satisfying, but feels more like a short story than a novel. Some movies have the plot of a short story, but try to last as long as a novel. Star Trek: The Motion Picture felt like an episode of the series that got dragged out interminably, hence its nickname, The Motionless Picture. The Wrath of Khan, on the other hand, was a film that felt like a novel.
Critics of A Good Woman may consider it a mere whisp of a movie. But the film is based on a play whose genre was farce. A farce has the structure of a short story, not the grand sweeping vistas of a novel. And the denouement of the plot is not huge. It is about the size of a story By O Henry.
Other criticisms have to do with Helen Hunt’s emotional flatness. They say she is unconvincing as a seductress. This stems from a misunderstanding of the story. Helen Hunt does not play a seductress in this movie. She plays a pragmatic woman who loves her daughter.
The movie was not a great box office success. However, you can now watch it on YouTube free of charge. And that is a win for the ordinary movie goer. Watch it below!
For a review of this movie on Julia Hanna’s channel, watch this:
I liked what I have seen of the Good Woman so far, but I need to finish watching it so I can digest it more fully.
I hope you come back and let us know what you thought of it, once you have finished watching.