THE WINGS OF THE DOVE
The story begins in 1910 with Kate Croy (Carter), a young woman
forced to live a miserable life in London with her controlling,
rich aunt Maude (Charlotte Rampling). This is because her mother
has recently died and her father (Michael Gambon) is an alcoholic
opium addict with a heart of gold but no cash and no sense of
responsibility. Since Kate has just come of age, Maude feels the
need to see that her niece "marries well," which of
course means marrying some high society snob, namely Lord Mark
(Alex Jennings), whom she abhors. Meanwhile, Kate is already in
love with one of her "old" (read: "poor")
friends, Merton Densher (Linus Roache), a middle-class man who
must actually work for a living. He writes for a newspaper. How
gauche. But Aunt Maude has assured Kate that if she insists on
going with him, she will be cut off from the family fortune, and
so will her father, who is also receiving a weekly stipend from
his nasty sister-in-law.
This movie, directed by Iain Softley, progresses slowly at
first. In addition to establishing Kate's rather trite situation,
the first half also introduces Milly Theale (Alison Elliott),
Kate's rich American friend who is thought by Kate to be the object
of everyone's infatuation. Lord Mark admits that he wants to marry
Milly, but later he confides that it is really Kate that he loves,
and that Milly is terminally ill and he just wants to marry her
so that he can inherit her fortune, which he needs to maintain
his acquired lifestyle. Then he and Kate can wed and be happy.
Whether she wants to or not.
It is not until probably a full hour into the film that the
actual plot starts to grind into motion: Kate wants her boyfriend
Merton to court Milly (who is in love with him) for two reasons:
(1) to give her some true love and affection in her last days,
and (2) to marry her and thereby inherit her fortune for himself,
so that he and Kate may live happily ever after.
As with Carter's other films, like the ones mentioned in the
opening paragraph, this one is beautifully produced and impeccably
acted. The music (by Ed Shearmur) is rich, the scenery is rich,
the costumes are rich. If you are a fan of these romantic period
pieces, you'll probably like this.
But it's not without its problems. It moves pretty slowly,
it is terribly brooding, and it takes a while for the momentous
amount of exposition to give way to the actual plot. The characterizations
are well-defined, but Carter's characters in all these period
movies are practically interchangeable, and frankly it's getting
a little boring. Sylvester Stallone was great in Rocky,
but by Rocky V we had had enough. Same problem here. Also
there are some other issues, like Rampling's wicked-stepmother
character being stereotyped to the point that one questions the
validity of the entire story.
Granted, these are picky points, but they are indicative of a bigger problem: that of Amini and Softley getting a little sloppy in their attempt to continue milking the formula that was successful in Carter's previous major movies. But if you're in the mood for a weepy romance beautifully produced, you won't be disappointed. ****