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The Hollywood calendar is somewhat perverse, at least if you see a lot of movies. The summer is packed with action blockbusters and sequels of earlier hits, the winter with Oscar-seeking marathons and costume dramas.
Spring and fall feature smaller fare, such as romantic comedies, teen movies, and the occasional thriller. The problem is that you tend to see a lot of the same type of film all at once which, no matter how much you like
it, gets old after a while. I remember a couple winters ago actually wishing for some explosions and special effects. The occasional immigrant from another season tends to receive favorable treatment, if you know what I mean.

Enter The Golden Bowl, the latest Merchant/Ivory production. This one's adapted from a late Henry James novel and features the usual upper-crust English setting and period costumes. Usually, that makes me itch like a
shirt with too much starch, but The Golden Bowl is quite pleasant with solid acting and an absorbing story.

The film revolves around four characters: Charlotte, Maggie, Prince Amerigo, and Adam. Maggie and the Prince are married; Adam is Maggie's father; Charlotte and Maggie are best friends from childhood; Charlotte and the Prince had an affair long before he married Maggie; and, in the movie's first act, Charlotte marries Adam. Yes, it's a complicated love rectangle, which gets even trickier when we find out that Maggie and Adam might be the most devoted daughter and father this side of taboo.

The problem with Maggie and Adam's affection isn't that it's unseemly (they're perfectly chaste) but that it leaves Charlotte and the Prince alone a great deal of the time. They try to stay faithful to their spouses, but their solitary marriages push them into old habits. At first, Maggie and her father are oblivious, but these things have a way of being exposed after a time.

The acting in The Golden Bowl is strong, as you'd expect from a James Ivory-directed film. Kate Beckinsale (Last Days of Disco) plays Maggie with a bright reserve, revealing her devotion for both her husband and father. Jeremy Northam (An Ideal Husband) is convincing as the Italian prince who's in love with two women. If this were a movie with a bigger audience, Northam's sexy good looks and romantic accent might vault him into the upper ranks of celebrity. As it is, he'll have to settle for being the darling of the costume drama set.

Nick Nolte, as Adam, isn't as convincing. It's not that his acting is poor, but he seems to have stepped into the wrong movie. He's portraying a wealthy American expatriate, but his style is contemporary, as if he's inhabiting the wrong turn-of-the-century. Nolte has grown on me in his last couple of films (Affliction and Thin Red Line), but here his mannerisms and approach clash with the movie's tone.

Uma Thurman, as Charlotte, also feels out of place, but in her case that's a good thing. Her other-worldly beauty seems dangerous in a Merchant/Ivory film, and her passion for Prince Amerigo is palpable. In a genre famous for
its reserve, there's something exciting about open desperation and bald-faced deceit. Put another actress in the role of Charlotte, say Emma Thompson, and we'd have another by-the-books 19th-century romance. With Uma, however, there's always the possibility of the unexpected, which makes even the traditional a little more interesting.

In contrast to Merchant and Ivory's usual exploration of class, here the ostentatious wealth (Adam is America's "first billionaire") is merely window dressing. All four of our characters are well off, particularly once Charlotte marries Adam. Though we're alerted early on that one can be poisoned by bits of gold leaf falling from the ceiling, no one or their marriage is killed off by a lack of money or its excess.

Unfortunately, the movie's ostensible themes aren't developed terribly well. Taking Henry James's emphasis on Americans in Europe, Ivory and his long-time screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala focus on the immigrant
experience in America. They use old newsreel footage and newspapers to explore what's going on in America, while the film's protagonists dally in Europe. But there's no rhyme or reason to these scenes, and even the film's
conclusion, which revolves around a trip to America, feels artificial, slight, and meaningless. The film also focuses on art (Adam is a famous collector who's helping design a museum), but again there's no depth to it. We're treated to a loving series of Raphael drawings, but the filmmakers don't connect it to the art of film or anything else in the movie.

Nonetheless, The Golden Bowl is an enjoyable two hours. The cinematography (by old Merchant/Ivory hand Tony Pierce-Roberts) is often gorgeous, and the British estates provide some spectacular scenery. And, more importantly, it's a nice diversion from the sequels and explosions of Hollywood's summer. 

J. Robert Parks 5/18/2001