THE WINGS OF THE DOVE (62)

Directed by: Iain Softley

Starring: Helena Bonham Carter, Linus Roache, Alison Elliott

The Pitch: In Edwardian London a young woman persuades her lover to seduce a terminally ill American heiress, planning to get married with her money when she dies.

Theo Sez: Carefully detailed period surface (the final roll-call includes credits for an Etiquette Advisor, and even a Movement Consultant!), but it doesn't feel like the film knows (or cares) very much about its era. The abiding impression is of 90s people in turn-of-the-century fancy-dress, as when our heroine innocently wonders why a dowager at a party should be steering her daughter towards a certain young man (because he's rich, of course - we could've told her that) ; as in JUDE, this screenwriter gives the impression of a man trying to explain a foreign country to people who've never travelled anywhere in their lives - everything is simplified, and thunderingly explicit. He also cuts the story down to its bones but that's actually a good idea, leaving plenty of time for loaded looks and significant pauses - and the premise is so strong that, as the central scheme takes shape, the film is frequently irresistible. It helps that it looks ravishing - not just lush but ripe and atmospheric, almost decadent, decked out in purples and cobalt-blues and punctuated with little windows of rich orange firelight. Nothing about it is particularly sensitive (not even the visuals - it takes place in London and Venice, and they both look pretty much the same), but there's a certain ardent prettiness to it, a lighter (and liter) version of the heightened, artificial world in PORTRAIT OF A LADY - plus, of course, there's Bonham Carter's sly, smouldering performance. Who'd have thought this pallid little goody-goody had it in her?