Word: countess
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...York society of the 1870s, Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a true romantic gentleman. He is romantic because he wants to shrug off the opera cape of domestic respectability and follow his heart to hell with the Countess Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer). He is a gentleman because, having already declared his love to pretty May Welland (Winona Ryder), he is bound to behave honorably. He knows that when passion and propriety collide, only bitter defeat may rise from the wreckage...
Scorsese's style is still intelligently abustle: fast dissolves of an opera audience, a quiet riot of gold when the blond countess receives yellow roses from Newland, a slow-motion vignette of working men -- the people whose labor subsidizes the idle class. Throughout, he shows he can be as attentive to the tiniest twinges of the heart as he has been to the gunfire of taxi drivers and goodfellas. Here, instead of shouting, people speak softly and in code. The movie is 135 thrilling minutes waiting for someone to come to the point. And that is the point...
...saccharine to be taken seriously, and the war-on-the-home-front scenes are too melodramatic to affect. Perhaps unwittingly, Wyler does paint am interesting picture of suburban England, with its flower shows, comfortable houses and local royalty. Dame May Whitty steals the show as a grumpy countess with a passion for home-grown flowers...
...bounds of bathos. Combining with Watkinson's unfailing vocal agility and expressive gusto, this wrings every ounce of dramatic potential out of Haydn's already amply suggestive recitatives. The overall effect is that of an opera in miniature, and the arias are reminiscent of Mozart's writing for the countess in the Marriage of Figaro...
Despite her altruism, though, the Countess must still defend herself against unbelievers. "Skeptic in Kansas City," instead of seeking help, charges that "if you were such a great psychic you wouldn't be writing for a weekly newspaper." If, "Skeptic" says, the Countess had any brains she would predict winning lottery numbers. But Sabak retorts, "I stopped playing lotteries after I became a multimillionaire early in my career. I now devote my time to helping other people free of charge. Writing a column for The Weekly World News--with my six-figure salary donated to charity--is just...