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A Good Woman
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A Good Woman is a scandalous yet comic story set in New York and the Italian Riviera during the 1930s. Mrs. Erlynne (Hunt) is an audacious and well-known woman of a certain age with a reputation for entertaining wealthy, married men. Leaving her problems and unpaid bills in New York, she sets sail for Italy to pursue Meg (Johansson) and Robert Windermere (Umbers), one of the most high profile couples in 1930s society. Once in Europe, she becomes embroiled in a family scandal which becomes an intriguing story of seduction, betrayal and, ultimately, surprising loyalty.
A Good Woman is a 2004 drama film directed by Mike Barker. The screenplay by Howard Himelstein is based on the 1892 play Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde. It is the third screen version of the work, following a 1925 Ernst Lubitsch silent film and Otto Preminger's 1949 adaptation entitled The Fan.
A wet teabag of a movie, A Good Woman reworks Oscar Wilde's Lady Windemere's Fan as a jazz-age drama set in the sun-drenched Italian town of Amalfi. Sort of. Howard Himelstein's script mostly consists of the dull, move-the-action-along dialogue usually heard on the Lifetime network. Then, when the plot allows for it—which doesn't happen often enough—the movie shifts into Wilde mode, and the characters start trading priceless bon mots. They're jewels carelessly mounted in a movie that worries more about the costumes and sets than what the characters within them feel.
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Set in the 1930s, A Good Woman is an elegant and clever romantic comedy based on Oscar Wilde’s classic play Lady Windemere’s Fan. Emerging penniless from yet another failed affair, the seductive Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt), leaves New York for the Italian Riviera, where she hopes to find a new patron among the vacationing aristocrats. Among her suitors is a wealthy young American whose wife (Scarlett Johansson) is herself distracted by the flirtatious overtures of a notorious playboy. Brimming with sumptuous locales and sweeping romance, this film is a sophisticated ode to Wilde’s legendary wit and wisdom.
A Good Woman is based on Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan. But unlike Wilde's play, which is based in Victorian England, the film is set in Italy decades later. Critic Kenneth Turan is worried the story can't survive such a drastic change of scene.
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A Good Woman is based on Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan and will appeal to an older, mature audience. Children and young adolescents will probably find the film both boring and confusing.
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