Portrait of a Lady

Jane Campion has done well with her adaptation of Henry James' psychologically complex novel The Portrait of a Lady. That is not surprising, for Campion's previous film "The Piano" was likewise a gripping story with a daring aesthetic. I do not remember James' novel in detail, only in broad outline, but Campion seems faithful to the book. With its symbol-laden imagery the film is well placed to convey James' psychological plot. At the beginning of the film, however, there is a scene with modern hippie girls enjoying their freedom. That is how I interpret it, but it is still unclear what Campion actually wanted to say with the scene.

Nicole Kidman is the right choice as the protagonist, the independent Miss Isabel Archer. The film skips the action in America, and nothing much is lost by that. The real story only begins with Isabel's rejection of Lord Warburton's proposal at the Touchett family's English estate. Isabel wants her freedom rather than all the riches in the world. When old Mr. Touchett later dies, he leaves a large sum of money to Isabel, which she uses for an educational journey abroad. At her English relatives' she meets the scheming Madame Merle, who, just like herself, comes from the New World. The New versus the Old World, however, is a theme Campion has chosen to filter out.

In Italy Madame Merle introduces Isabel to the alluring Gilbert Osmond, and soon things go as Madame Merle has planned: Isabel and Osmond marry. Only much later, when Osmond has long since made Isabel a prisoner in his own beautiful Florentine palace, does Isabel find out why Osmond really married her. It was out of love for her large fortune.

The film has a slightly optimistic and open, but less plausible ending, which as far as I know does not occur in the book.

The casting is, with a single exception, perfect, especially as regards Kidman, Martin Donovan and Barbara Hershey, but the very popular John Malkovich is miscast once again. In "Dangerous Liaisons" he was also supposed to play an arrogant seducer. Well, he could under no circumstances seduce me. Campion should have chosen an actor who at first glance seems likeable but can turn up the demonic forces when it counts. Malkovich is constantly creepy, and it does not help the story that you cannot understand what Isabel sees in the pompous fool.