The Wings of the Dove

Magnificent adaptation of a complex psychological novel.
Screenwriter Hossein Amini has abandoned the dense prose and convoluted syntax of Henry James's most complex and difficult novel and created instead a fresh, emotionally nuanced, and psychologically astute script, nominated for an Academy Award. With a remarkable cast, breathtaking cinematography (Eduardo Serra), and a soft background score filled with strings, harp, and piano (Edward Shearmur), Director Iain Softley has created a magnificent film that succeeds in being emotionally affecting, intellectually stimulating, and aesthetically rewarding, a film in which every element contributes to a satisfying whole.

Remaining true to the story of James's novel, the film introduces Kate Croy (Helena Bonham Carter) as the beautiful but impoverished niece of a wealthy socialite (Charlotte Rampling), bent upon finding her a husband of means, but Kate must sever ties with her opium-addicted father and end her relationship with Merton Densher (Linus Roache), a penniless journalist...

Helena Bonham Carter's finest hour.
In 'The Wings of the Dove', as in 'The Portrait of a Lady', Henry James offers us his popular theme of class-conscious, fortune-hunting Brits exploiting the innocent wealthy American girl. Only this time the action is viewed from the perspective of the victimizer who becomes her own victim.

Helena Bonham Carter as Kate Croy the English adventuress, Linus Roache as Merton Densher her impecunious journalist lover, and Allison Elliot as Millie Theale their intended victim, are the principal actors in this drama of psychological twists and turns.

In the opening scene Carter, swathed from head to foot in Victorian attire, exudes an aura of compelling eroticism as she trysts with her lover, Merton, in a crowded tram-car. In the film's closing scene, in bed with him stark naked her whole body reflects the despair of her plots gone wrong. In between this sensual opening and this depressing conclusion her gorgeous face is a telling kaleidoscope of emotions. Carter can...

A fascinating "modernization" of the Henry James novel
I have been seeing previews for "The Wings of the Dove" for years on various DVDs that I have rented and finally got around to watching this adaptation of the Henry James novel. When I finished watching it the thing that struck me was how the attempt to modernize the story worked both for and against what James had written. Now, what makes this a particularly perspective to take on the film is that the adaptation by Hossein Amini moves the time frame of the story up eight years to 1910. That might seem a minor change, one scarcely worthy of note, but in 1902 good old Queen Victoria had not been in her tomb a year and the age that bears her name was still on its last legs (more to the point, James had been working on the novel for years, so it was clearly written during the Victorian Age). When you change the setting to 1910 it is then the end of the Edwardian Age, which makes a big difference, especially from the standpoint of English morality.

Kate Croy (Helena...

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