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A Good Woman: Oscar Wilde
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Based on the Oscar Wilde play Lady Windemere's Fan, A Good Woman is an elegant romantic comedy set on the Italian Riviera in the 1930s. In the film, the marriage of a young couple becomes jeopardized by gossip throughout the couple's high society acquaintances.
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"A Good Woman" is Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan" updated to the 1930s and minus the acute social observation. This is a little like remaking "Gone With the Wind" without the Civil War.
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The champagne falls rather flat in "A Good Woman," a heavily reworked version of Oscar Wilde's comedy of manners, "Lady Windermere's Fan," that's neither fish nor fowl. Relocated from the snooty drawing rooms of 1890s London to the elegant playground of 1930s Amalfi, story of a young couple's marital misunderstandings has a script that plays more like a period romancer studded with occasional Wilde-isms and gets uneven treatment from a mixed Anglo-American cast, led by Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson. Older, upscale auds could respond to tastily-lensed pic's retro charms, but a wider audience awaits on cable.
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In A Good Woman, the filmmakers have updated Oscar Wilde’s 1892 play, Lady Windermere’s Fan, to the 1930s and relocated it from London to Italy’s Amalfi coastline. Director Mike Barker has borrowed a line from another of Wilde’s plays, A Woman of No Importance, as the film’s epigram: “The only difference between saints and sinners is that every saint has a past while every sinner has a future.”
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Set in the picturesque Italian Riviera, A GOOD WOMAN is handsomely photographed. Despite the relatively modest budget, director Mike Barker’s (THE JAMES GANG) film looks expensive with its elaborate costumes, sets and props. The mood of a romantic romp set in a coastal Italian village in the 30’s is effective and adds to the enhancement of this mischievous tale. Hunt fulfills her role as the initially scheming mistress while effectively metamorphing to a more caring human being. Though the reasoning may not be credible, this fault lies more in Wilde’s play than in the script or Hunt’s performance. Wilkinson matches the seductress in his helplessness while the other members of the cast look mostly pretty with their looks and hard bodies.
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Given that A Good Woman is so closely adapted from Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, it’s somewhat surprising that they didn’t just choose to keep the original title. At any rate, it’s a well made, enjoyable period drama with strong performances from its three leads. It’s ... a damn sight better than the last Wilde adaptation, The Importance of Being Earnest.
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