The Europeans

A wonderfully elegant adaptation of Henry James' early novel about the impact of a sophisticated but impecunious European countess and her brother on their wealthy country cousins in America. Staged with affection, insight, a whole fistful of superb performances and exquisite settings. Odd, though, that Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's otherwise excellent script fails to note James' distinction between the Countess, who is a fortune-hunter, and her brother who is not; without it, the subtlest irony of this comedy of manners goes by the board.