La governante

Driver plays a Jewess in 19th century Scotland who poses as a gentile and takes a governess position to provide income for her family following her father's death. An artistically and technically excellent film, "The Governess" is flawed to the detriment of the overall effort. Driver's character grows ambiguous and the film wears on; the juxtaposition of the Jewish and Christian is overwrought; the male lead is not sufficiently charismatic; and the story stutters at the end which is anticlimactic at best. Nonetheless, well worth a look especially for Driver fans.

After her father is murdered, Rosina (Minnie Driver) must marry without love or strike out and try something different. She changes her name and takes a job as a governess.

Of course, she also has to hide her Jewishness and learn to be a Protestant.

Her employer, Charles Cavendish (Tom Wilkinson) is a photographer working on a way to fix the photos he takes so that they last more than a day. She shows an interest in his work and spends her spare time helping. As expected, Minnie Drivers sensuality soon captivates him. He gives up his photographs of nature and gets into portraiture.

He realizes that he is not her intellectual equal and, when he discovers that he was in love with a Jewess, he turns very cruel.

She returns to London during a cholera epidemic, finding her mother dead. He new knowledge enable her family to survive, and she flourishes.

Driver was outstanding, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers was also good as the son.

Sandra Goldbacher's first feature film shows much promise.

Why all the negativity about this utterly brilliant motion picture? First of all, Minnie Driver is absolutely splendid. The entire film is beautiful to watch, the story palpably intelligent and erotic. The characters rich and spellbinding. I was enraptured by the first 5 minutes and the story never let me down. Tom Wilkinson was excellent as was Harriet Walter. A definite must see for lovers of intelligent period pieces. Very reminiscent visually of Jane Campion's "The Portrait of a Lady" and Shekhar Kapur's "Elizabeth." Too bad the film (and especially Driver's performance) got so little attention when it was released this summer. Rent it, and then decide how you feel.

Apart from being a well-acted, well-constructed film, "The Governess" should be seen by those interested both in Judaica and Romance studies. The film offers a unique occasion of hearing judezmo, the archaic Spanish spoken by Sefardi Jews, and getting acquainted with their splendid musical tradition (Classic songs, e.g. "Cuando el rey Nimrod", performed instrumentally and by Ofra Haza). It is also quite interesting to observe e.g. the characteristic head-dress worn by the protagonist when still in her London environment, and customs of the London Sefardi community as portrayed here.

I quite enjoyed this movie. Sure, my mind wandered a lot because the story is hardly gripping. I'm also positive I won't remember much about it next week, except that Minnie Driver's talent and beauty is stunning. STUNNING. I did also feel that the leading man was poorly cast. He did not seem to me a person that a young, vibrant woman would fall for. I'm sure the script called for a older man, but age wasn't the problem. He just didn't seem to fit in with Minnie Driver. Nonetheless, the whole movie was excellently shot and wonderfully acted and extremely high quality, but conversely it's regrettably forgettable. (That's a nice phrase, no?)