Merchant and Ivory's best film.

jromanbaker

I am sticking my neck out here but I truly believe ' The Bostonians ' is the best film this remarkable couple of Merchant and Ivory made. It is flawless. And why ? Because of the actors, the tight script and drawing out the essence of one of the finest of Henry James's novels. I disagree that it is Lesbian in content. The ambiguity of Vanessa Redgrave's performance goes deeper than that. She touches all the sensitive areas of repressed and misguided love which only she, as possibly the UK's greatest actor, could do. Without giving spoilers her role as a woman who loves a younger woman is more complex than lesbianism. Tenderness and love between women is often mis-translated by men as being sexual because they are physically stirred by the thought. I suggest men especially should watch the film more closely. It is in my opinion the battle of two people, one a man played excellently by Christopher Reeve ( how he shone under James Ivory's direction ) and of a woman who believes that the friend she loves most should remain faithful to the cause of women and to her friendship. The battle for possession of this younger woman and for her to make a choice in life which she is not yet mature enough to make is at the very core of the film, and is bitterly painful to watch. The use twice of Brahms ' Alto Rhapsody ' is in my opinion not in the film simply because it sounds nice. It is one of the saddest pieces of music and not there for it's perhaps misinterpreted sound. It is a moral plea in music for men and women not to become cold towards others, and roughly in translation the words ' destroys his own soul in unsatisfying egoism ' could apply to both Vanessa Redgrave's character and to Christopher Reeve's. Both of their character's want to possess the young woman, when she needs a true, and not a destroying choice of her own. When she makes the choice the viewer should be crying out for both of her battling pursuers to let her go and find her own unique world. A lot of Henry James is centred upon this kind of battle for ego centred or moneyed needs. I would say from ' The Turn of the Screw ' to ' The Wings of a Dove '. I apologise to those who may read this for not getting on with the film's cinematic qualities. I had an intuitive feeling that James Ivory got exactly what he wanted from this work, without compromise of any kind. His cast is exactly right and Helen Hunt, Nancy Marchand and Jessica Tandy give their best, but I also have to include the whole cast. To look at it is a million miles away from the sort of painting by numbers that most TV or film adaptations can be, and there are scenes of pure visual genius such as Christopher Reeve entering a theatre with spears ( as decoration ) pointing at him, and the horrific delusion in Vanessa Redgrave's mind of her friend, dead, being cast ashore by the sea. Only an excellent director could conceive such images so psychologically clearly. And despite certain carping from mediocre film critics who should know better the genius of Merchant and Ivory should be far more celebrated.

score 10/10

jromanbaker 4 January 2021

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6442989/