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...hands of Shrier, the delivery seems outlandish in its seriousness, as if a strange corruption in the play's text--devoid of any ambiguous undertones that would point up the doctor's assumed staidness, perhaps self-consciously realized as false, perhaps not. Instead, it becomes another prescription, and the questioning yet fascinated look from Sylvia seems almost camp, as the moment of connection slips away...
...novel was first published in 1902), to accentuate the closeness to present-day society of this transitory period of modernization, down to the street lights, elevators, subways and evening gowns. Hence also, perhaps, the film's overt eroticism, which constitutes the boldest and most potentially controversial reworking of the text. In James, the eroticism is so finely distilled that it breaks through to the surface only fleetingly, and then restricted almost entirely to the violence of suggestion and language rather than action. Softley's contemporized approach works because of the genuine erotic chemistry between Bonham-Carter and Roache, which reaches...
Despite its major alterations of the text it adapts, the form of this version of The Wings of the Dove is in fact fairly conservative. No Campionesque touches a la Portrait of a Lady here. But if it's not a groundbreaking piece of art, it does succeed as a powerful, well acted and unexpectedly poignant story of love and betrayal. The cult of Henry James can take their complaints elsewhere; the rest of us can just enjoy the film as a work inspired by--not transcribed from--a great book...
...often under-utilized "pool of talented women at Harvard," and this she has succeeded in doing. The actresses in the play's supporting roles do not fade beside Jirmanus's splendid Yerma but instead complement her and each other, bringing a multitextured and vibrant life to the text's potentially flat and symbolic set of characters...
...simple but effective set, too, works toward making concrete the unifying themes of the text: the village's washer-women are provided with a river, via the simple expedient of a roll of blue fabric, making visible the torrent of water that infiltrates areas of the play as a symbol of fertility and female power. Inside Yerma's house, the furniture is sparse--a rocking chair, a table, jugs for water--and the dominating element is the starkest one of all: a doorway, erected against the air, marking the boundary between the house to which Yerma is expected to keep...