A Smidgen of Edgar Allen Poe, Henry James, and British Gothic

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2012)

This is the second cinematic adaptation of Susan Hill's novel of the same name (the last was made in 1989), this one written for the screen by Jane Goldman and directed by James Watkins. As with many British ghost stories (termed Horror, Drama, Thriller by the press) the themes remain the same - just the locales and the names of the characters change. Not that that is a bad thing, but it is nothing novel and if such stories are your cup of tea - shadowy images in darkened house windows, incidental dead children, a suspicious group of townspeople, a lots of candles flickering out because of mysterious doors opening and closing at will - then this incarnation will please. There is very little dialogue and very little character development, but the locations are magnificent, the cinematography is glorious (Tim Maurice Jones) and the musical score (Marco Beltrami) is chilling. THE WOMAN IN BLACK is an elegantly creepy, atmospheric, British period style ghost story.
When a friendless old widow dies in the seaside town of Crythin, young solicitor Arthur Krips (Daniel Radcliffe), who lives with his four-year old son Joseph (Misha Handley) - Arthur's wife Stella (Sophie Stuckey) died in childbirth) - and Joseph's Nanny (Jessica Raine), is sent by his firm to settle the estate. Arthur finds the townspeople reluctant to talk about or go near the woman's dreary home and no one will explain or even acknowledge the fact that he inadvertently incurs the wrath of a malevolent spirit, the woman in black. She is no filmy, gauzy wraith, but a solid black silhouette of malice and evil. The viewer only sees her a few times, but you feel her malevolent presence in every frame. Ignoring the towns-people's cryptic warnings (they are trying to conceal a deadly secret), he goes to the house where he discovers its horrible history and becomes ensnared in its even more horrible legacy.
Along the way Arthur is befriended by Dailey (Ciarán Hinds) and his strange insane wife (Janet McTeer) and Dailey is the only man willing to transport Arthur across the tide covered marshes to the haunted estate. The story is basically dealing with life after death - in the person of ghosts who stay around to wreck vengeance for their deaths - and the many events that suggest that indeed there is a place after death is borne out by story's strange ending.
Daniel Radcliffe manages to carry his role well (the designers keep him with a fashionable 5 o'clock shadow to prove he has outgrown Harry Potter) and the subordinate cast is strong in the miniscule parts they are given. This is a mood piece, a ghost story of the old-fashioned sort, and it doesn't pretend to be otherwise. You either like these films or you don't. I do.