The Reef

This is an adaptation of an Edith Wharton work, whose writing is amazing. Sadly, this movie never shakes the feeling that these 20th century movie people don't grasp the 19th century repression and desperation Wharton's work depicts. Ward and Dalton aren't so bad, but Alicia Witt's wooden performance made me wince. She was supposed to be playing the restless element of the story, but she stood like a stick the whole movie long, and I never believed a word out of her mouth. When she asks Sela Ward "Why can't I move you?" near the end of the film, I couldn't help but answer: "That's what I've been wondering for the last hour and a half!!!"

This was one of the worst films I have ever seen - VERY made for TV - but it was still very entertaining. I'm surprised that I watched the entire film, but then again, not really, because I love Timothy Dalton, and he is watchable in even bad films.

I'm giving this a 8 just to bump up its overall average a bit.

This production was more than just made for TV thing - the settings are quite beautiful and the costuming exquisitely and meticulously "period".

I thought Timothy Dalton and Sela Ward were quite good; indeed the director and camera crew framed Mr. Dalton in each and every of his scenes quite ravishingly handsomely. However, they effected their skills somewhat less effusively on Ms. Ward's portrayal, partly, I think because perhaps it was their interpretation of the original Edith Wharton story that Ward's character was meant to be a somewhat older and only sedately attractive woman, thus squandering Ms. Ward's natural beauty on screen, although that does nevertheless shine thru in certain scenes.

The problem is the supporting characters - Leslie Caron is rather too dithering as the matriarchal figure in the cast, and the two "young adults" in their performances are quite amateur or, perhaps, ill-directed. Alicia Witt maybe needed to be a bit more conniving and trashy to really be interesting.

But perhaps worst of all was the pacing of the film - which I think was meant to be Fin de siècle stately, but was just boringly slow, and practically ground down to a halt by a weighty full orchestral scoring fading in and out.

All that said, tho, it's a somewhat pleasant piece of eye candy thanks to Mr. Dalton, Ms. Ward, the costuming and the sets - I watched it twice and enjoyed it for what it is both times.

I suppose that to even attempt to enjoy this 'made for TV' production, a knowledge of Edith Wharton's works and the novel way in which she thought, given the age in which she lived, would be a great advantage. Then, if that knowledge was a given, Passion's Way, or The Reef (her novel) might have worked well had it been a British production and not an American one. The cast is OK with the exception of Timothy Dalton who plays Charles Darrow and cannot decide whether to be an American or an Englishman as his accent drifts from one side of the Atlantic to the other. For the rest, the production is very much let down by careless attention to detail. It is often the case in American productions that approximations of geographical locations are deemed to suffice and, whilst that might fool an American audience, it will not cut the mustard with the inhabitants of Europe who know full well their Paris from their Prague. These shortcomings were evident from the first few moments of the film. The novel (and this movie) explores the harm that is done when an unwise action causes ripples to spread out from it like a stone dropped in the middle of a pond, creating chaos for those who are innocently caught up in its maelstrom. This production really fails to convey that which is a pity. It does no justice to Edith Wharton's writing at all.

Slow-moving ponderous movie with terrible acting on the whole - but lovely locations & clothes to admire, and, of course, Timothy Dalton, who does a compelling job, as always. I wanted to laugh out loud at the voice-overs - so silly!! But Dalton is always worth watching, even in bad movies, a wonderful actor, older now, but still very handsome and masculine. This movie is worth viewing only to see him....and he seems like he wandered into a bad dime romance novel, poor fellow. Your time would be better spent watching Mr. Dalton in 1970's "Wuthering Heights" or the early 1980's BBC version of "Jane Eyre". Poor Sela Ward, so lovely, but so wooden.... surely she's been better in other movies.