Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

The House of Mirth (2000)

Director: Terence Davies

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Terence Davies' adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel is a triumph which puts most recent screen versions of the classics to shame. It concerns a New York socialite beauty who ends in disgrace, despair, poverty and worse after she is wrongly rumoured to have had an affair with the philandering husband of one of her friends. Though period and place are sensitively evoked, Davies sidesteps superficial details to home in on both the cruel nuances of the wealthy set's polite social rituals and the resultant suffering. It's a marvellously elegant (but unflashy) film of faces in sombre close-up, an emotionally devastating study of injustice, enforced solitude, wasted opportunities and love never quite gratified. The casting is inspired, with Anderson, especially, repaying her director's faith with an immaculate, unsentimental but immensely moving performance, while Davies' writing, sense of pace, and customary honesty make for a film that profoundly affects both the heart and mind.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Terence Davies

Producer: Olivia Stewart

Cast: Gillian Anderson, Eric Stoltz, Dan Ayrkroyd, Eleanor Bron, Laura Linney, Anthony LaPaglia, Jodhi May, Elizabeth McGovern full cast

Duration: 140 mins

Related articles


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.