The American

It never fails: Choose any movie adaptation of an Henry James novel, and it's always the same: Ridiculous goings on, and things always end badly.

Here we have dark goings on in a family from the French aristocracy (sexual abuse, abuse of power, you name it) and every time it seemed like things were about to take a turn for the better I turned to my wife and said "This isn't going to go well" and it doesn't.

Matthew Modine is a likeable enough actor, but here it isn't much he can do with the script; Diana Rigg as always has fun being a villainess, but here she is just silly... and so on. I would have never started to watch this Prime streaming offering if I had noticed that it is based on a Henry James novel.

Unless you want to be bummed, skip it.

I have never read the novel in which this movie is based. However, it is maybe like in all the books. The movie will never be better than the book (Lets mention The Lord Of The Rings, for example, or The Never Ending Story, Little Women... and on and on) so I learned few years ago that any time I watch a movie I wont ever compare it with the book, otherwise I am almost sure I wont like it. So, if I don't even consider that there is a novel about this movie, then I can consider is a good one. The camera movements talk for themselves, all the photography is awesome, since Claire's close-ups to the Bellegardes' facade. I would call it very sentimental shots, that make you able to feel Claire's sadness, and the mother's craziness, and maybe the music helps a lot. Something extra is that this movie has not the typical happy-end, and that's something I like a lot. I find also (even I am not a psychologist) the psychology of the characters very well treated.

This was terrible. I waiting it out to the end and it was a complete waste of my time. So disappointing.

Quite simply utter crap and a total waste of time.

Just do stupid, far fetched and gross rubbish.

No other words to describe this excuse for entertainment.

Disc one of Henry James Collection. My heart goes out to everyone who has to adapt a James novel for the screen. Henry James played his cards so close to his chest that it's hard for contemporary viewers to understand what's going on, even if they can adjust to Victorian moral standards. Just what is happening in those frequent tense interviews at the Bellegarde house between Christopher and these aristocrats? To make everybody's motives clear requires taking liberties--sometimes great liberties--with the novel. I was pretty content with the results, even though they made me think of Geoffrey Rush and Kate Winslet in QUILLS at times.

Matthew Modine is an actor I've always liked, and here he doesn't disappoint me. He plays this modernized script as though he was born to it. I especially savoured his reaction to the degenerate Count that Mme de Bellegarde wants Claire to marry. Diana Rigg as the mother is doing a variation of Lady Dedlock in Bleak House; effective enough but it's a weak part. Aisling O'Sullivan as Claire looks pretty but lacks dramatic intensity. This is for Henry James completists who can overlook the melodramatic touches.