A GOOD WOMAN
UK, 2004, 98 minutes, Colour.
Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Marc Umbers, John Standing, Milena Vukotic.
Directed by Mike Barker.
A Good Woman is an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play, Lady Windemere’s Fan.
Oscar Wilde would not have called himself a moralist but in his plays and in his stories like The Portrait of Dorian Grey, he definitely proposes to his audience and analyses issues of right and wrong. The plays do it with wit and elegant style. If we listen carefully to Wilde’s epigrams, we realise that under the felicitous vocabulary and phrasing, under the ironic contradictions, he is making strong moral judgments. It is done with the lightest of touches in The Importance of Being Earnest. In A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and Lady Windemere’s Fan, there is an abundant of wit but more substance and depth.
Lady Windemere’s Fan is a morality play about appearances and reality. Mrs Erlynne is a lady of the world, elegant in style but dependent on the whims and cheque books of the married men in her life. Society (and injured wives) have no difficulty in branding her a bad woman. (She is similar to but less destructive than Mrs Chevely in An Ideal Husband.)
By contrast the young and innocent Mrs Windemere is one year married, turning twenty one, believing only good about people and, though fearful of sounding priggish, she believes in standards and decorum. Everyone considers her a good woman.
When Mrs Erlynne goes to the Amalfi coast for the season, gossip about her abounds, especially as Mr Robert Windemere is seen, suspiciously and often, in her company. As she remarks, condemning gossip, ‘You have bought gossip and should ask for a refund’.
Wilde loved upper crust society but he also knew how to highlight their foibles and the genuine nastiness underlying the respectable veneer. This is where his clever dialogue bursts pretensions. (Having seen the film with a paying audience rather than at a press preview, I was surprised and delighted how Wilde’s aphorisms elicited so much delighted laughter.)
The director is Mike Barker who made The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Lorna Doone for television and the intriguing film about Oliver Cromwell, George Fairfax and Charles I, To Kill a King. He has not gone so far back in history here, nor has he gone back to Wilde’s 1890s London. Rather, the action has been internationalised with Mrs Erlynne and Meg and Robert Windemere now Americans. It has also been brought into the 1930s, the period of Noel Coward, one of Wilde’s most obvious literary and dramatic descendants.
This transposition works quite well and contrasts American new money with the decaying old money of Britain and Italy in the form of idle and stupid aristocracy.
The casting and performances are interesting. Oscar winner Helen Hunt (As Good as it Gets) is a brittle Mrs Erlynne who has to do a self-sacrificing deed to save Meg Windemere. Meg is played be the versatile Scarlett Johansson. There is a very genial performance by Tom Wilkinson as a rich man who admits he is ignorant but has a penchant for telling the truth. Stephen Campbell Moore is the charmingly caddish Lord Darlington.
Ultimately, superficial perceptions and judgments are overturned. Mrs Erlynne does the noble thing and Meg is able to overcome her presumptions and pronounce her a good woman. Meg, on the other hand, has been too rigid in her expectations and her moral fragility has cracked. She is in danger of losing her reputation and becoming a bad woman.
It is something of a surprise to hear so many of Wilde’s lines and realise that they have become part of the culture, seemingly off-hand, throw-away wit, but humorously ironic – and moral.
1. The status of Oscar Wilde, his plays, wit, moral perspectives?
2. The adaptation of the story to the 1930s, the background of the Depression in America, wealthy Americans going to the Italian coast for the Season?
3. The New York opening, the fashionable restaurant, the hotels? The move to Italy, the beauty of the sea, the old town, buildings, décor and costumes, the re-creation of the period? Songs and music?
4. The transition of the title from Lady Windermere’s Fan to A Good Woman? The tone of the title, the moral statement? The use of Lady Windermere’s Fan story from the original?
5. Mrs Erlynne and her voice-over comments? Her life, men in her life, her husband marrying the wrong woman? The wives and the chatter at the tables at the New York restaurant, the closing of accounts? Her pride, her marriage, her daughter and abandoning her? Living by her wits, sexuality and allure, her selfishness, wanting comfort and fashion? Seeing the information about her daughter’s marriage, going to Italy, her motivation? A bad woman?
6. Italy, her presence, clothes, place in society, being shunned, the subject of gossip? The meetings with Robert Windermere, the cheques? The women and their criticisms, the men and their gossip? Tuppy and his attraction towards her, their encounters, her mellowing, discussions with him, explanations of her life? The possibility of love? The plain talk and honesty? The use of Oscar Wilde aphorisms?
7. Mrs Erlynne and her daughter, seeing the photo of Meg, going to Italy, seeing her in the shop, the discussion about the dress, decency? Mrs Erlynne and the blackmail? Her meeting Robert, the explanation of all the communication by the fan? The parties, the birthday, her not being welcome there? Robert and his clash with her? The talk with Tuppy, the proposal, the ring? The clash with Meg, going to the room, finding her letter and destroying it? Listening through the door to Robert’s denunciation of her? Going to the boat, talking with Meg, hiding, the loss of the fan and her returning it? Going to the plane? Her sacrificing herself and her reputation for her daughter? Listening to Meg’s explanation of her mother as a guardian, the locket? Tuppy in the plane, the return of the fan? Her being a good woman? Not revealing the truth to her daughter?
8. The audience, being led to believe that Mrs Erlynne was a bad woman, in relationship with Robert? Audiences believing the gossip and the lies?
9. Meg, her age, memories of her mother, the locket, her marriage to Robert? The encounters with Lord Darlington, her being uncomfortable with his compliments, trying on the glove? Going walking with him, alone, the fish? Her love for Robert, the gift of the fan? The preparation for the party, not wanting gifts, Lord Darlington’s gift? The chequebook, her grief and reaction? Her behaviour at the party, her drinking? Her leaving and the note? On the boat, her surprise with Mrs Erlynne? The discussion between them, her being saved, the fan, her not telling Robert the truth? Her belief in decorum, her expectations of perfection, her fragility and its being shattered?
10. Robert, his character, work, the political background, love for Meg, the buying of the fan? The rendezvous and meetings with Mrs Erlynne, the cheques? People’s gossip, Lord Darlington’s reaction? His being hurt, not wanting Mrs Erlynne to come to the party, going to the yacht and being with Darlington?
11. Darlington, the cad, idle, rich, flirting, his reputation, his gossip with the men, attention to Meg, the party – and his quota of Wildean aphorisms?
12. Tuppy and the men, their wealth, Tuppy and his admitting that he had no brains, the background of his marriages and divorce, plain talk, the relationship with Stella, respect for her, love? His disappointment concerning the fan? The happy ending and the plane?
13. The foppish men, their talk – very Wildean? Their comments on life, people, gossip, the Season? Dreaming about Mrs Windermere’s identity…?
14. The countess, her enjoying the gossip, her daughter and her plainness, the binoculars, watching everything, gossiping and making judgments? The other women and high society?
15. The Season in Italy, the lifestyle, wealth, idleness?
16. The secrets and lies in families, the keeping of secrets, the preservation of relationships by secrets and lies?
17. The skill of Oscar Wilde’s dramatising people, issues, moral issues? His wit?
