A Good Woman

Plot synopsis:
Set in 1930, the film opens in New York City, where femme fatale Mrs. Erlynne finds that she is no longer welcomed by either the high-ranking men she has seduced or the society wives she has betrayed. Selling her jewelry, she buys passage on a liner bound for Amalfi, Italy, where she apparently sets her sights on newlywed Robert Windermere. When his car frequently is seen parked outside her villa, local gossips become convinced the two are having an affair.
Robert's demure wife Meg remains oblivious to the stories about the two circulating throughout the town, but when she discovers her husband's cheque register with numerous stubs indicating payments to Erlynne, she suspects the worst. What she doesn't know is that Erlynne actually is her mother, who has been extorting payments from Robert in return for keeping her secret. She is consoled with the advice, "Plain women resort to crying; pretty women go shopping."
In retaliation for what she believes is her husband's transgression, Meg wears a revealing gown to her twenty-first birthday celebration, attended by Erlynne - wearing the same dress - in the company of Lord Augustus, a wealthy, twice-divorced man who has proposed marriage to Erlynne. Complications ensue when Lord Darlington professes his love for Meg and implores her to leave her supposedly wayward husband, an invitation she accepts.
Erlynne, having found Meg's farewell note to Robert, intercepts her on Darlington's yacht, where the two are trapped when Augustus, Darlington, Robert, and friends arrive for a night of drinking. Robert is startled to see the fan he gave Meg for her birthday on board; while Meg makes a hasty escape, Erlynne reveals herself and claims she had taken it from the party in error; and Augustus, thinking his fiancée was planning a romantic rendezvous with Darlington, ends their engagement.
Robert pays Erlynne to leave Amalfi immediately and begs her not to reveal her identity to Meg. Reluctantly, she complies with his wishes, although she returns his cheque before she departs. On board the plane waiting to take her to a new life, she discovers Augustus, who presents her with the fan Meg gave him when she confessed to him all that had really happened. Erlynne accepts his renewed proposal of marriage and the two depart for places unknown.

Tags: romantic, depressing

Review:
Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson are both very good (as is most of the cast), but Wilkinson is so endearingly silly that you can't help but care for him more than the others.
But have no fear - if you like films that have a good and witty screenplay, high production values, wonderful scenery, excellent actors, beautifully made costumes and a score that enhances every bit of enjoyment in the film - then this one is for you.
The principal actors are good, particularly Helen Hunt and Tom Wilkinson, but they are more than well supported by some fine British character actors who are superb and totally convincing.
Tom Wilkinson is, as ever, a joy to watch - it's certainly impressive how he can persuasively portray both fantastically nice characters such as Tuppy, and also villains like Lord Queensberry in "Wilde".
For the record, I know by heart every Oscar Wilde work, all his quotations, and where they came from.Oscar Wilde was a genius, and these hacks who tore apart "Lady Windermere's Fan", changed the title to "A Good Woman", and passed it off as their own did nothing but to tarnish Wilde's reputation.Those who read or saw the original play would have a good idea what is going on in the film.
Here, he is just another man who sympathized with her (mostly due to the fact that Mrs. Erlynne's role was demoted to a hair short of a whore).Overall, the flow of events and lines were just thrown right at the audience with little sense, or expectations, or both.Finally, if you don't like this movie someone tells you you're an uncultured brute, you can tell them this.
I almost didn't bother to see this, but I'm pleased that I did.As noted by other comment writers, the strength of this film is the two fine performances of Helen Hunt and Tom Wilkinson, especially Wilkinson in the role of Tuppy.The film suffers the usual foibles of a stage adaptation, with some scenes seeming very contrived, as the characters linger at bars and exchange witticisms.
On the other hand the writer and director have made a serious effort to address this problem and succeed in parts, (Lady Windermere and Lord Darlington's stroll through the fish sellers is a memorable example).I am not familiar with the original play and especially towards the end was quite swept along by the narrative tension, which again was a very pleasant surprise.So in conclusion, a clever little story, some fine performances and a stack of Wilde's incisive aphorisms on the vagaries of the human condition.
As a UK BAFTA member had I have seen it in competition earlier this year (and I don't know why it was not BAFTA nominated) I would have cast my vote for it in most major categories....particularly Direction, Editing, Performances, Design, Make up, Costume, Music and more, even Best Film.The only criticism I have is the title....and this may have held it back from popular interest.
The way you are lured to believe throughout the first half of the picture the great deception on which Wilde first built his plot,which is the role of a woman of ill-repute portrayed by Helen Hunt, and her connection with Mr. Windermere, I find it to be a stroke of genius of both the original writer as well as the script's writer and the director.
Having read and seen the original play "Lady Windemere's Fan", I had some expectations watching this movie, knowing Oscar Wilde to be one of the best playwrights throughout history and loving his wonderfully witty and marvelously studied dialogues, which perfectly mirror the society he was criticizing with his amazing play.Unfortunately this movie is a complete failure.
As lovely as she was in Lost in Translation, she was dazzling in A Good Woman.This film requires that you invest your full attention or you will miss most of the really great gems:"I like America.
I remember her fondly from "Mad About You." The only other movie I have seen her in was "As Good as it Gets," but I will be looking for "Bobby" to see her again.I won't go into the details of the story as that would spoil it for you, suffice it to say that it makes for a very interesting background to this film about love and morals.
Based on Wilde's work, 'A Good Woman' is a decent enough film to be enjoyed once.
I almost knew nothing about the movie before I saw it (including that it was an adaption of an Oscar Wilde play), so I had no expectations at all.
(If you haven't seen the movie, watch the trailer and you will hear what I mean!) I note many other reviewers disagree with me on this one.Scarlett Johansson is better cast (although she was having a bad hair movie - period hairstyles don't have to be unflattering you know!) as the young newly wed Meg Windemere.
The wonderful wit of Oscar Wilde is placed squarely in the hands of Tom Wilkinson (Tuppy) and Stephen Campbell Moore (Lord Darlington).
The name originally accorded by Oscar to this famous and most well-loved play, Lady Windermere's Fan, was the title used in this movie.
This was about the only honour accorded Oscar in this woefully disappointing film.I had missed that Helen Hunt was in it, being caught up in the other good cast members I read on the sleeve - Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Diana Hardcastle.
(Did anybody in the movie research the Italy of that era and why would the British and American be supporting a fascist regime?) Americans stand in for just about everyone so it also loses the cranky tweeness that English thoroughbreds were trained in.Here the lines (and all of Wilde's work is freely pillaged for this) sound awkward and artificial in most of the mouths, with the exception of the aforementioned Tom, Stephen and Diana who positively shine and raised this viewer's rating from a 3 to a 6.
I have enjoyed both Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson in other films, and so expected good things.
Mike Barker has made an exquisite adaptation of "Lady Windermere's Fan" and the only significant change that he's introduced has to do with time (the 30's instead of the beginning of the century).Helen Hunt gets into the skin of that marked woman that's the epicenter of tons of rumors and gossip.
I really liked this version of Oscar Wilde play.The idea to put the story in the 30's and Italian riviera is very appealing.The photography of the Italian landscape is excellent and plus you get to see some incredible Italian villas of the place.
A European collective production, this film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windemere's Fan" is quite lovely.
I had seen an Oscar Wilde movie that Was called the Ideal Husband, A Good Woman is similar to it, being in that there was a women that came in that had started to wreak havoc on everybody's life, I like Oscar Wilde but it seem that everybody wants to make movies of, the same plays all the time and not really having much originality.
There is much that is worthwhile about director Mike Barker's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's classic play of manners, "Lady Windermere's Fan".
First-time screenwriter Howard Himelstein updates the story to the 1930's placing most of the action on the glamorous Amalfi Coast in Italy, and it certainly makes for a great excuse for a beautiful setting and period-authentic fashions.The film sticks with the basic outline of Wilde's play, as the plot focuses on Mrs. Stella Erlynne, a scandalous socialite who has been run out of New York for using wealthy, married men to allow her to live the high life to which she has become accustomed.
Faring better are Stephen Campbell Moore as Darlington (spewing my favorite Wilde line as he describes America as a society "that's gone from barbarism to depravity without bothering to develop civilization in between") and, in particular, Tom Wilkinson, who plays Mrs. Erlynne's not-so-love-blind suitor, Tuppy, with the panache that the rest of the cast seems missing.
Great adaption of Oscar Wilde's play 'Lady Windermere's Fan'.
I've read Oscar Wilde's play "Lady Windermere's Fan," and I don't care too much for it, which seems to be a sentiment partially shared by the makers of this adaptation of it, "A Good Woman," a title that is taken from the last words spoken in the play.
I also like that there's a scene where the social clique spy on Mrs. Erlynne and Tuppy at the theatre, even though it's essentially a relocated reworking of the race track sequence in Lubitsch's film, and it would've been better had they been watching one of Wilde's plays, as in another similar scene from an adaptation of one of Wilde's scripts, "An Ideal Husband" (1999).
Lord Augustus (Tom Wilkinson) falls for the fascinating American Erlynne.I don't know anything about the Oscar Wilde play.
While retaining her secret identity, the illustrious Mrs. Erlynne (Hunt) saves Lady Windemere (Johansson) from making a grand social faux-pas with the scoundrelly Lord Darlington (Moore).My expectations were a bit low on this because I am still warming up to Helen Hunt.
A terrific little film, although few will know, as I did not, that it is an adaptation of Wilde's play, Lady Windemere's Fan. Lady Meg Windemere (Scarlett Johannsen) is a beautiful, young newlywed, residing presently on Italy's Amalfi coast with her rich, gorgeous husband.
One day, there is a new lady in town, very lovely Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt), who is a notorious woman.
This is based upon a play by Oscar Wilde Mrs. Windermere's Fan Meg(Johansson) and Robert Windermere (Umbers) have a happy marriage until Mrs Erlynne (Hunt) makes an appearance and she appears to have monopolized Robert all to herself.
But it all makes sense a little more than half way through and then I thought that Helen Hunt was the perfect person to play in this movie.
Oscar Wilde, one of the greatest playwrights of the 'fin de ciëcle', did a good job writing Lady Windermere's Fan, the play this movie is based on, so doing it any justice would be very hard.
The play is still being staged all round the world, and audiences still love Wilde's work, so the step to the big screen was one that would be taken one day or another.Mike Barker did a great job, he stays true to the text where he can, but he also is very aware that in film you do not have the confinements of the theatre.
The costumes look wonderful, though some are a tad too much updated to the year 2000.This is a great movie, if you like Wilde's witty dialogue, go see it!
Although the playwright changed Oscar Wildes original play.Alternative versions are entitled to exist.The original play was better and it would have been better to set the movie in Victorian England.The costumes were great as well a the editing and the photography was excellent.The 4 other men and women were like a Greek chorus.The distributors should change the title and reissue the movie the title"The Sacrifice"Tom Wilkinsons acting was great.The 2 female leads were miscast.
after that nightmare thriller this was nice enjoyment, excellent screenplay, good actors (Helen Hunt is as usually adorable, although this role certainly did add not much to this outstanding actress, Scarlet Johanson was also good, I hope she will get better roles in future, Dumby and Tuppy have exceeded my expectations...), Italy in its best sunshine and shadows, nice charming happy-end.
I must say it is excellent: the adaptation works excellently, the script is really good, all the cast act well and Scarlett Johannsen is just perfect: so is Helen Hunt.As so often in this kind of film, the ensemble playing is very good with the minor aristos (esp the men) played to perfection.
Don't get me wrong, I am quite a fan of Tom Wilkinson, who has seemed to matured with age, but the main characters Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson, didn't really make the movie enjoyable, due to the script.
The Wilde original calls for sophisticated (& probably necessarily British) actors with talent for the drawing rooms of the 19th century.Tom Wilkinson & the sets/setting were the only redeeming things in this otherwise pretty badly acted film..
I loved everything in this movie and it let me totally escape into it's story of a loose woman (Helen Hunt) who has worn out her welcome from many wives and they wish her to leave so she sets off to Italy to start a new life and runs right into her past (a daughter she abandoned as a baby)and yet everything works out beautifully in the end.
Updating Oscar Wilde's play, "Lady Windermere's Fan" is definitely tampering, but at times not poorly done.
Even though I had never heard of the director, I was sure this couldn't be a bad movie, as it featured Scarlett Johansson and Helen Hunt (oh well, the latter starred in What women want, so maybe I was just deluding myself).
I much prefer other people's." "The best way to keep my word is never to give it."And most appropriate for this drama: "Modern marriage thrives on mutual deception."Director Mike Barker and writer Howard Himmelstein have smoothly changed the location from a Victorian drawing room to the 1930's island of Amalfi, an escape for the indolent British wealthy and opportunists like Helen Hunt's Mrs. Erlynne, who decides to steal the heart of Lord Windermere (Mark Umbers) from his wife, Meg (Scarlett Johansson).
Along the way Lord Augustus (the durable Tom Wilkinson) sets his eye on Erlynne, in a turn of honesty in which he acknowledges his own lack of worth but his great wealth and her life as a series of wealthy-man entrapments.Except for Johansson, who seems uncomfortable and thereby miscast, the actors are fit for their roles, or more properly, for declaring Wilde's witticisms.
I loved the script and the way it had been uplifted from Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's fan set in Victorian England to the 30's in Italy - some cracking lines.
Helen Hunt was almost unrecognizable and I loved her in this role.I knew very little about the movie before seeing it and will say I did not see the twist coming at all.
Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson in a film that is based on a play by Oscar Wilde.
Scarlett's one sick lady/the most beautiful woman!I love A Good Woman it's really sweet and kind with great acting; Helen and Scarlett make the film with good support from Tom Wilkinson!(Who knows who came out alive in 2008's The Other Boleyn Girl with Scarlett and Natalie Portman, that was a real bloodbath/epic clash between 2 all-time bright and young beautiful movie babes!
I've always thought that Helen Hunt was a very good actress, but I found her a little less than convincing here, particularly in the climactic scene near the end of the film.
"A Good Woman", a phrase which occurs a number of times in the script, was Wilde's original title for his play.
Mrs Erlynne, fearing that Meg is about to take a step which will ruin her life and reputation, takes a dramatic step to prevent this and to bring about a reconciliation between Meg and Robert.The point of relocating the action from the drawing-rooms of London to the Amalfi coast was presumably to provide some spectacular scenery to make the film more visually attractive, and the point of making some of the characters American was presumably to provide roles for Hollywood names like Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson.
The line, for instance, about America being the only country to have gone from barbarism to decadence without an intervening period of civilisation does not reflect Wilde's personal view but rather the prejudices of a bitter, cynical character in "A Woman of No Importance", the play from which it is taken.The best acting contributions come from Tom Wilkinson as Mrs Erlynne's lover Lord Augustus and Stephen Campbell Moore as Darlington, the only actors who seem at home with Wilde's style.
"A good woman", an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windemere's Fan" is a sweetly charming , inoffensive little movie that makes for a great afternoon's entertainment.
The actors are to the person excellent with Helen Hunt giving a fine portrayal of a character at first difficult to like (but she is a good woman!).
Scarlett Johansson once again proves that her dramatic skills are equal to her beauty and Tom Wilkinson, Milena Vukotic, and the entire cast toss Wilde's wonderful lines into the air like butterflies.
Though lavishly photographed, and sporting decent period production  design and costumes, the film is freighted with disappointing  performances by Scarlett Johansson as Meg Windermere - the first of her  roles that I've seen that did not sweep me off my feet - and by Helen  Hunt as her secret mother, the gold digging Mrs. Erlynne, who had  abandoned Meg 20 years earlier.
However, there are quite a few problems that have less to do with the story itself than in the actors playing the pivotal roles they've been given.Helen Hunt, a good actress who brings a little of the iron physical presence Bette Davis had in her early film career -- think EX-LADY, for example -- can't be believed for a moment that she could be a man-eater, an alluring female capable of having men eat at her beckoning (the same way Davis had no sex-appeal in her own glammed-up performances).
This change makes the character more accessible -- indeed, there must be women like the Mrs. Erlynne in this movie -- but it can be a tad problematic when it comes to a re-interpretation of a 19th Century play.Scarlett Johansson is another good choice to play Lady Windemere -- she's the right age, at least.
For those who have neither read nor watched Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's fan", here's a simplified plot, as adapted for the motion picture.