Hey folks, Harry here... I have a very fond spot for Merchant Ivory films... the first set that I had extensive experience on was THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFE, a Merchant Ivory film that was shot here in Austin, and I had a little role in the film, my freshman year of college, that set my brain thinking about a future doing something in and around movies. There was just something magic about watching Keith Carradine, Vanessa Redgrave and Rod Steiger working for days and day and weeks. It has been awhile since they had a film of real substance to cheer about, this doesn't seem to be one of those, but it sounds entertaining. Here ya go...
Hey Harry et al,
Don't write often but saw the new Merchant Ivory film the other day and haven't seen any word on it anywhere yet so thought IÃd drop a line.
It's called Le Divorce and stars the gorgeous combination of Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts alongside a host of great names such as Glenn Close, Stockard Channing, Sam Waterston, Jean-Marc Barr and Thierry Lhermitte. Oh, and Matthew Modine!
I want to establish quickly this is not some costume drama with a bunch of stiff-upper-lipped Brits walking around quoting Tenison and repressing their love for one another. This is a whole new type of Merchant Ivory production that continues to employ the high standards of acting, photography and production design that we have come top expect from the cost-dram likes of Remains Of The Day and A Room With A View.
First the plot MINOR SPOILERS. Le Divorce sees Hudson travelling to Paris to visit her pregnant sister (Watts) and her French husband, but as she arrives so he is leaving for another woman quite acceptable and expected in France according to the script. Hudson stays to comfort and help her sister and ends up working for an author (Close) and having an affair with an older man (Lhermitte). Meanwhile as Watts and her husband plan a divorce she doesn't want, his family try to lay claim to a family heirloom (a painting) which Watts has in France when it was passed to her by her family. This brings Mom (Channing), Dad (Waterston) and brother (the superb Thomas Lennon) to France to join the action.
Like director James Ivory's period work this contemporary rom-com (dare I use the hideous term dramedy?!) moves at a sedate pace and certainly fills its two hour running time. In an age of fluffy throw away films like Two Weeks Notice and Hudson's How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Le Divorce treats its audience with a refreshing maturity. For instance the film may poke fun at the French but in an inoffensive way and suggest the Americans of the film are always in the right but it does so while celebrating French lifestyles, fashions, etc at the same time. Equally the French may be the butt of most of the humour but the English (represented at one point with a gloriously pompous cameo from Stephen Fry) and Americans are also put under the magnifying glass at times.
The most pleasing device used, despite the limits it might put on the filmÃs appeal to certain demographics, is the subtitling of French-language scenes. Rather than assume (as so many films do) that everyone in foreign countries speak English all the time, even when they are with their own countrymen, Le Divorce respects the audiences' intelligence and subtitles the French parts which frequently see Watts and Close (and later Hudson) conversing fluently.
Unfortunately all this respect for the viewer can't hide the fact that the script is quite light for this length a film with so many characters. Often motivation for a character's actions are completely mystifying. Close breezes through her part as Olivia Pace offering worldly wise opinions and cynical remarks ("love is a passtime one tends to grow out of") but has no obvious point in the story, coming in and out of the plot randomly and for no apparent reason. It is a role that, one gets the impression, could easily support its own film just about the life of that character a life we never really get to find anything out about ñ and it therefore criminally wastes Close on fine form.
Channing and Waterston's characters are equally badly drawn, touching in and out of the story occasionally. While they both do good work with what they have they would be best left out completely but I suspect the filmmakers couldnÃt bring themselves to leave such effortlessly watchable actors on the cutting room floor. Having the right ingredients doesnÃt necessarily mean the meal will work. Lennon comes out better despite having the most one dimensional part of the piece.
Watts and Barr and also sadly underused. Watts also seems to use the same expressions for every character. There are moments when she seems to lapse into The Ring and shows none of the promise she had in Mulholland Drive. Still this is HudsonÃs show and that is a saving grace.
Thankfully Hudson has enough of the Goldie Hawn bubbliness to carry the film through. She is a delight to watch and it is easy to be carried away watching her. Her expressions and mannerisms seem to clone her mother more in each film I see her in and she, likely Goldie, is effortlessly likeable the kind of rom-com perfection that Goldie had in films like Foul Play before passing the mantle onto Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally , IQ etc. Now Hudson has taken on that mantle and she carries the burden with ease.
It will be interesting to see how this fares on release but I would say if you go the cinema a lot its worth catching for the gentle humour and wonderful Hudson alone. If you spend that multiplex cash only rarely then best wait for video ëcause this is a three out of five star type of film.
Bye for now, Seth Imis.
PS if a theatre near you is showing the New Zealand film Whale Rider SEE IT NOW, its beautiful and brilliant.
