Review of A Good Woman (2004) by Manny C — 10 Mar 2011
Scarlet Johansson is just the right talented bombshell for period films, what with those amazing curves and lips. Certainly this adaptation of the great Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan, updated, rather frustratingly, to 1930's Italy by screenwriter Howard Himelstein, has a saving grace with her included.
Johansson is Meg Windermere, a newlywed from New York vacationing on the Italian Rivera with her husband, Robert (Mark Umbers). Meg begins to think the worst when Robert starts cavorting with the notorious Stella Erlynne (Helen Hunt, terribly miscast).
If only their affair were steamy at all. Director Mike Barker (Best Laid Plans) is all talk and no action, and where's the fun in that? Save for the great Tom Wilkinson as Tuppy, one of Stella's wealthy acquaintances, much of the acting runs the gamut from terribly average to downright bad.
Hunt does a huge disservice to Wilde's tasty epigrams. A Good Woman is little more than a sinking ship.
This review of A Good Woman (2004) was written by Manny C on 10 Mar 2011.
A Good Woman has generally received mixed reviews.
Was this review helpful?
