7/10
Did Someone Say Henry James -- Please Wait While I Shoot Myself
17 July 2009
The inevitable question will be: is "The Wings of the Dove" faithful to its source material? I, alas, can't answer that question for you, because to me Henry James's novel was 800 pages of random words strung together in ways that resembled sentences but made absolutely no other kind of sense. I'd rather be bludgeoned to death with one of his books than ever have to read another one -- the movie version could have featured transvestite cyborgs for all I cared; as long as I wasn't actually having to read it, I was a happy boy.

The film is pretty good, about what you'd expect from a period piece based on a famous literary classic. It's got more pizazz than a Merchant-Ivory production, and boasts a great performance from a Merchant-Ivory regular, Helena Bonham Carter. It's nothing special, but probably worth a watch.

Grade: B
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