Review of The Bostonians (1984) by Tani N — 25 Apr 2009

I was pleased enough with this film until the very end. While I did not find Potter to be the phenomenal orator that Verena was supposed to be, the film initially captured the essential elements of the book.

While James made it clear that Verena was not to be happy in her final decision, the film makes no attempt to bring any sort of closure to her character, and instead ends with the focus on Olive. Redgrave's Olive was more.

..abnormal than any impression of the character I had had from the book, but her portrayal was well-done and consistent. It was just frustrating to have a film that stuck so closely to the original material, for once, only to have it seem to miss the entire point in the end.