Washington Square
Tags: cruelty

Plot synopsis:
A prologue introduces us to Dr. Austin Sloper (Albert Finney), a New York City doctor and resident of a large house on Washington Square whose wife dies in childbirth, leaving a daughter, Catherine (Jennifer Jason Leigh), to be raised by her father. As a child, Catherine is overweight, clumsy, and untalented; however, she is also a sweet, affectionate child. She adores her father and tries hard to please him, but he considers her a disappointment and treats her with ironic condescension. His thoughts are still much occupied with his beloved wife and with a promising son who died before Catherine was born, and he privately – but bitterly – resents his only surviving child for causing his wife's death.
Sloper invites Catherine's widowed aunt, the incurably foolish Lavinia Penniman (Maggie Smith), to live at Washington Square as a chaperone for Catherine. Catherine becomes a plain young woman who is painfully shy and inept in the social graces expected of someone of her class, despite her aunt's best efforts to instill them. Apart from her sweet nature, Catherine possesses only one obvious attraction: money. She earns $10,000 annually from her mother's estate, and will inherit considerably more when her father dies.
At a party celebrating her cousin Marian Almond's (Jennifer Garner) engagement, Catherine is introduced to a handsome, charming young man named Morris Townsend (Ben Chaplin). He is attentive, respectful, and – to Catherine's obvious astonishment – clearly interested in her. He begins paying regular calls at Washington Square. Before long, the susceptible Catherine falls headlong in love with him. Sloper, however, suspects Townsend of being a fortune hunter, with no intention of pursuing a career. Aunt Lavinia loves melodrama and gets a vicarious thrill from Townsend's attentions; and so, contrary to Sloper's wishes, she does all she can to encourage the relationship, even meeting Townsend secretly to collude with him.
The central conflict emerges when Townsend proposes marriage and Sloper refuses to give his consent, telling Catherine he will disinherit her if she marries without it. Catherine doesn't care about the money, but disobeying her father is another matter. She dutifully accompanies him on a Grand Tour of Europe, during which he exhorts her to give Townsend up; she refuses, and a frustrated Sloper speaks to her with such contempt that she finally admits to herself that he despises her. The realization pains her deeply, but also strengthens her resolve to separate herself from him and bestow all her love and loyalty on Townsend.
Catherine comes home, determined to marry. When she and Morris are reunited, she convinces him that her father will never relent. Shortly afterward, he backs out of the relationship. When Catherine tearfully confronts him, he admits his mercenary motives outright and leaves her.
Years pass. Catherine has refused at least one respectable offer of marriage. When her father's health fails, she nurses him through his last illness. During his final days, he asks her to promise never to marry Morris Townsend. With quiet dignity, she replies that while she seldom thinks of Townsend, she can't make such a promise. Sloper misunderstands her and alters his will, adding a codicil deploring his daughter's ongoing interest in unscrupulous young men and leaving most of his $300,000 fortune to charity. Catherine is left with only the house and the income from her mother. She isn't offended by the codicil; in fact, at the reading of the will, she laughs.
Some time later, Townsend reappears at her doorstep. Catherine, who is now running a daycare center in her house, talks to him briefly. She isn't angry, but she has no interest in renewing their relationship, and tells him so, quietly and firmly. He departs, leaving Catherine to reflect on the passion she once experienced.

Review: It is unfair to compare the 1997 film "Washington Square" to the 1949 film "The Heiress."  "Washington Square" is a faithful adaptation of Henry James' eponymous classic novel; "The Heiress" is based on the stage adaptation of the James novel by Augustus and Ruth Goetz.Hence, the two most dramatic scenes in "The Heiress" do not appear in "Washington Square" -- Morris Townsend's cruel jilting of Catherine right before their planned elopement, and Catherine's revenge in the final scene, where Morris is left pounding on the bolted door.There were many fine performances in "Washington Square," most notably Jennifer Jason Leigh.
This is a masterpiece of film-making, both because of the talented Polish director Agnieszka Holland, and the performance by Jennifer Jason Leigh.
The performance by Leigh is really as delicate as gossamer, and she spins a transparent silky web of tormented love with such intensity she outdoes even Olivia de Havilland, who played the role before her in 'The Heiress' long ago, and to do that is a miracle!
I believe this is the finest of all the many excellent films based on Henry James stories, and most of them are so good, that is high praise indeed..
It takes a lot of nerve to take on a De Havilland's part ,and Jennifer Jason Leigh has succeeded though:she has never taken the easy road ,as "last exit to Brooklyn"(1989)testifies.She is one of these rare contemporary actors (like Sean Penn,Daniel Day-Lewis,Emma Thompson)who shuns narcissistic parts,who does not think twice about making herself look ugly(like De Havilland).Her portrayal of a gauche,clumsy but endearing heiress(!)despised by her father is brilliant.Matching her every step of the way are Finney's and Smith's sensational renderings of the rich fat bourgeois and the ambiguous spinster.
Albert Finney plays a selfish cruel man ,whose wife died when his daughter was born,and he never forgave the girl this death.So he 's always putting her down,humiliating her fiercely.Maggie Smith -who has already played old maid parts:see "the prime of miss Jean Brodie"(1969),"the honey pot" (1967)"A room with a view"(1986)-is equally successful as the heroine's aunt:we never know whether she helps or thwarts her niece's plans.She probably tries to recreate what she misses during her whole life,but isn't she trying to make her niece what she is as well?Whatever you think of remakes,when you deal with such a efficient threesome,you forget all your bias.Henry James talks about woman's condition during the last century.Money is the center of the heroine's drama;she will never be sure to be loved for herself,that's why her love is doomed from the very beginning.At the time,marriage was the woman's only future,ugly women became either spinsters or nuns.Catherine's dilemma is that,unlike the other socialites for whom marriage is the way to become part of the posh elite,love is second to none for her.Ben Chaplin is rather acceptable,but his character remains one-dimensional.It was probably hard to equal Montgomery Clift.In a nutshell,a movie who shuns fad;hence a very commendable work.Agnieska Holland -who had already directed a remarkable "Europa Europa"- is a director who promises great things..
To truly understand the plight of the young lovers and especially to get a sense of the tension behind the relationship between daughter and father, one must view "The Heiress" and "Washington Square" for the two films are lovely by themselves, but they certainly complement each other.
The film version of Henry James' novel twists the story James tried to convey.
I think that a more strict adherence to James would have made the film just as romantic, but would have left the audience with the message that the lovers had just as many faults as the good Doctor..
"Washington Square" is a flat, shabby adaptation of the short novel by Henry James.
Moreover its simple, eventless story seems unsuited to make it into a film (although William Wyler, with his "The Heiress", gave in 1949 a beautiful version of the novel).
Along three quarters of the movie, Catherine (Jennifer Jason Leigh) just seems to be mentally retarded, poor thing.
But if a director utterly ignores or misunderstands the art of an author (here Henry James), I don't see the point of using his work to make a bad movie.
The acting is adequate to the movie: poor and flat, in spite of the talent of Albert Finney and Maggie Smith.
I do not know who is to blame, Miss Leigh or her director, but her performance as Catherine is almost impossible to watch.
It was a rambling story told by a busybody with none of the dramatic high points of The Heiress; it is Henry James" first novel and has none of the intriguing nuances of his later novels.This film stays closer to the novel than "The Heiress".
This film is an insult to two of the greatest actors ever to hit the silver screen, Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift, who starred in the original version, The Heiress.
I dont know if it it touches all those who have felt betrayed or if katherine is so believable that the leaking eyes are for her!!I have recommended it to all my friends who enjoy a good weepy.The ending is not sad but gives me a sense of strength and survival,a kind of "good on ya Katherine" having read other reviews it amazes me how differently people experience the same movie.
While The Heiress was a good, if not entirely accurate, adaptation, Washington Square is a heavy-handed and poorly acted, except for the part of Dr Sloper, film that could have been so much better.The director's attempts at making 'beautiful' scenes were so obvious that I actually cringed.
I agree with other comments about Leigh's portrayal of Catherine as an idiot, instead of naive and shy; she made me despise her not feel for her.Catherine's transition from childlike trusting to adult cynicism, the whole point of the story, was internalised, just as it was in the novel.
I think someone skipped adaptation class at filmschool.I appreciate the director's attempts to make a moving and beautiful film out of a difficult text but it just didn't work..
This movie has some beautiful sets and Albert Finney does a great job as the ruthless father.
The movie fails because Jennifer Jason Leigh is too jumpy as the daughter and is no match whatever for Olivia De Havilland's far more nuanced, mature rendering in The Heiress (1949).
The film's feminist-leaning conclusion also goes against the austere conclusion of the novel, Washington Square, whose author, Henry James, savagely parodied feminism in some of his other novels.
I understand there was some conflict between Leigh and the great Maggie Smith during the filming.
The film is much more faithful to the original Novel by Henry James than its predecessor, The Heiress (Dir. by William Wyler), which was heavily based on a stage play of Washington Square.
This film was beautifully acted, directed, written, costumed, staged -- everything about this movie was well crafted.
While it's nice that we get to understand why Catherine is mostly ignored by her father (because her mother died while giving birth to her), director Agnieszka Holland, writer Carol Doyle, and Jennifer Jason Leigh make her overly pathetic at first.
It's as if they were smugly suggesting, "Of course no one would look at her, because her father beat her down so much."  Jennifer Jason Leigh is a better actress, IMHO, then Olivia de Havilland (who played Catherine in William Wyler's adaptation of this novel,  THE HEIRESS), but de Havilland(or Wyler, or both) understood we needed to see Catherine appealing and shy, otherwise we'd never believe Catherine when she believes Morris is truly in love with her.
Henry James' WASHINGTON SQUARE is well served in this solid film whose screenplay was adapted by Carol Doyle and has been directed with secure wisdom of James' style by Polish director Agnieszka Holland )'Europa, Europa', 'Red', 'Blue', 'Copying Beethoven', etc).
The musical score is in the capable hands of Jan AP Kaczmarek and the Director of Photography is Jerzy Zielinski, and with all these elements in place, the last ingredient in making this a successful adaptation of a Henry James novel is the cast.
Albert Finney is superb as the wealthy Dr. Austin Sloper who hoards his money in his mansion on Washington Square and whose overprotective rule of his less than attractive daughter Catherine (Jennifer Jason Leigh) - who is also under the influence of her overbearing Aunt Lavinia (Maggie Smith, still chewing the scenery as usual but convincing) - has put an impasse to Catherine's infatuation with the handsome but poor Morris Townsend (Ben Chaplin): if Catherine should choose to marry Morris she would be cut off as his heiress.
Distance, imposed by the disapproving Dr. Sloper in escorting Catherine to Europe for a year, doesn't appear to squelch the passion between Catherine and Morris, but Morris finds work which takes him away from the returned Catherine, only to learn upon return that Catherine will not inherit her father's fortune - a glitch that sadly changes the relationship of what had appeared to be a true love romance.
In the end the film follows Henry James' view of the world of his time - a palette for social criticism.
Albert Finney and Ben Chaplin are good too and Maggie Smith is gold.
Especially the one between Catherine and her father and the one in the final sequence with her and Morris.'Washington Square' makes for a decent one-time watch, mostly because of the performances..
End of comments on grooming.This charming Morris Townsend -- good family but no job and no money -- devotes a great deal of attention to Catherine.
And I'm not normally one to recommend the taste of teenagers, but I want to tell you that my high school English classes, so film-weary that they are quite hard to please, liked this film and, with a bit of help with the dialogue, especially between the older adults, tuned in very quickly to the idea of the father's protectionism, not truly for his daughter's benefit, but for his own pride.
But these are minor problems.) I also wasn't happy with the scene in which Catherine reacts so melodramatically to Townsend's departure, as there was surely never a Jamesian heroine who behaved so, but as a story about familial and romantic love and all its difficulties, it is definitely worth watching, especially if you are looking for a film for different age levels..
One of the problems encountered when preparing to see such movies as "Washington Square" is how to avoid early comments from those who "have seen the original" or "have read the book" or are professional film critics.
To be sure a couple of performances are a little "over the top' ie Leigh and the ageless Maggie Smith but the story allows them to indulge in their own acting foibles.
And the night before that I saw a film of a novel by George Eliot and I recalled what James said of Elliot  that she had a horrible face, but he fell in love with her  this from a man who never married and whose ability to love is questioned.
Leigh for instance is one of the most visibly confident actors alive, while Finney who plays the overbearing father, has a style based on obvious fear of being.It isn't quite James.
Jennifer-Jason Leigh gives an incredibly, nuanced performance as Kathryn Slofer, the heiress who is wooed by a young fortune hunter.
Jennifer Jason Leigh is achingly good and Finney is remarkably restrained and well-suited in the role as her single-minded father.
Ben Chaplin (who does a great American accent) is very credible as Morris and quite different than Montgomery Clift's performance in the earlier adaptation of this film, "The Heiress." Chaplin is so appealing that despite reservations viewers (and Finney's character) may have of his Morris' intentions, it is completely conceivable that Leigh's Catherine would fall so hard for him.Maggie Smith, is, as always, brilliantly funny and so perfect in her role as the meddling aunt (shades of Cousin Charlotte from "Room With a View" with an American accent).This very much gives you a feel for James' story.
This is not a disappointing film with a great cast including Dame Maggie Smith, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Sir Albert Finney (although he refused knighthood).
At her cousin Marian Almond (Jennifer Garner)'s engagement party, the socially awkward Catherine is introduced to Morris Townsend (Ben Chaplin) who seems to be actually interested in her.
Her father assumes that Morris is more interested in her inheritance.The younger Jennifer Jason Leigh always brought an innocence to her characters.
I watched it just because Agnieszka Holland directed it, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, one of my favorite actresses of all time, was in it, and not because I was interested in the story.It's another story set around the beginning of this or in the last century, I don't really know.
It's a love story, but also a character study of a young woman, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh.
It all turns into a long and entangled tale of bitterness, persistence, betrayal, overprotection, cruelty and, yes, also emancipation, and Leigh's efforts are without doubt worth approval, but the initial sweetness and dullness of her character is a bit disturbing (and I don't mean the good kind of disturbing) and the storyline is too epic.A plus of the film is the (almost) incomparable Maggie Smith (a strong reminder of `The Secret Garden') who is an aunt, a housekeeper and a schemer.
Those who only know Dame Maggie Smith from "Downton Abbey" and the "Harry Potter" movies will enjoy her here in a change of pace role as a really kind matron who anxiously longs to see her niece (Jennifer Jason Leigh) get together with the poor but charming Morris Townsend (Ben Chapin) even though her doctor brother (Finney) is dead set against their even seeing each other socially.The real conflict here is the relationship between father and daughter, a complicated and resentful one.
Leigh also makes her character much more clinging, so ultimately, she is not as likable, closer to the unattractive heroine of the musical "Passion" than to what the original play and movie had her to be.As Dr. Austin Sloper, Albert Finney is excellent, a combination of social mores, hidden hatred of his daughter, and in conflict with himself between his coldness and his Hippocratic oath.
It makes no sense that Leigh's Catherine would blame her aunt for Morris walking out on her.
In the original versions both on stage and on screen, you can tell that Catherine will go on with her life whether being a spinster or not, but something tells me here that Leigh's Catherine will end up like "Great Expectation's" Miss Haversham and be one of the most feared and disliked characters around.
This adaptation, like 1949's *The Heiress*, is based on the Henry James novel.
It is the story of a awkward, yet loving daughter (Leigh), devoted to her father (Finney) after her mother dies during childbirth.
I love Henry James books and Washington Square was no exception.
Jennifer Jason Lee is an exceptional actress and Ben Chaplin good enough to play the lead roles.
Catherine loves her father, her Aunt, Morris, even herself.
Nothing against Maggie Smith but she's not young looking or attractive in the film.
The part in the film where he states with passion he doesn't care about Catherine's father's money is a lie.
As much as I do not care for James, he did not write that as Catherine in the novel.
Morris mentions the cruelty of who he really is, and as a young woman in love, she doesn't care but as an "old maid" of 40 at the end of the novel, while you know she still loves Morris, her strength of knowing that while she does love him he'll never love her, only her money, and her father's money.The novel has passion, the film does not..
Catherine Sloper (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is the plain and simple daughter of a well-to-do doctor (Albert Finney), whose is raised by her aunt (Maggie Smith) when her mother passes away in childbirth.
When a handsome young man (Ben Chaplin) becomes interested in Catherine she is transformed, but her father suspects the young man is only after her money.The performance by Jennifer Jason Leigh is quite impressive as she shows her characters development throughout the film, the rest of the cast is also by and large quite strong particularly Albert Finney.Thanks to both the original novel and the adaptation by director Agniezka Holland and her screenwriter the film manages to present a story with a definite edge and characters with layers rather than just a simple costume drama.Based on the Henry James novel, previously adapted as "The Heiress" by William Wyler in 1949 with Olivia de havilland (Oscar as Best Actress), Montgomery Clift and Ralph Richardson.
(** no serious story spoilers **) This is a very sexed-up dramatisation of the great Henry James' original novel.
And Jennifer Jason Leigh gives an excellent, quietly confident performance as the plain, unloved Catherine Sloper, which will always make me admire her skill and bravery; plus the tension and even heat she helps generate in her scenes with Chaplin feel very real and powerful.In "Washington Square", Catherine Sloper, only surviving child of the formidable, rich and widowed Doctor Sloper, attracts the attentions of a young, handsome and clever man, one Morris Townsend.
This exchange, late in the original novel, between the Doctor and Catherine's kind aunt, Mrs Almond, shows something of the metal of both their characters: "At first I had a good deal of a certain genial curiosity about it; I wanted to see if she really would stick.
If you enjoyed this intense and well-cast film, I'd highly recommend your reading Henry James' extraordinary and deep novel to fully flesh out the nuances of the story..
With big-name actors like Maggie Smith, Albert Finney, and many others, there was no reason for the movie to fail.