Paixões Sem Limite

(1986) The Good Wife DRAMA

Originally called "The Umbrella Woman" in Australia, a movie that plays like one of the worst soap operas ever made, starring Rachael Ward as Marge Hills the wife of real life husband of Bryan Brown, playing as her faithful husband Sonny Hill, the time is sometime during "The Great Depression" and chops trees down as a way of getting by, along with his younger brother Sugar Hills (Steven Vidler) who eventually gains consent in hitting puberty with Sonny's wife. Eventually, she becomes selfish and gets tired living the life she's always accustomed in doing, which is the cleaning and the cooking, that she's willing to get herself humiliated by some of the townspeople just so she can be with a much wealthier sleazeball who takes pride in sleeping around with other peoples wives and his name is Neville played by Sam Neil. The movie is so bad one can know whatever happens if s/he were to use the fast forward button while playing since the dialogue is so uninspiring and emotionally draining. Oh yeah, although the movie is given the "R" rating on my commercial copy, it's only given that rating because of it's subject matter since their is no nudity nor any offensive language, at least as far as I know anyway.

Rachel Ward gives an incredible performance in this movie of a woman so obsessed with a man, that she slowly loses all dignity and her standing in the community. This is a powerful movie but could have been much better if the scene where she sleeps with her husbands brother in the beginning was left out. I really think the movie could be improved if that scene, which has nothing to do with the events that follow, could be edited out. That scene makes Ward's character seem to be a sleaze and only hurts the main story. If you can fast forward through that, you will see a well respected woman who loses everything in pursuit of a real jerk. Oh, how truthful this film is.

I saw this movie for the second time again after having seen it when it first came out in 1987. I enjoyed it just as much now as I did then. The characters are interesting and thought-provoking especially the main character, Marge Hills played by Rachel Ward. It's about a woman who lives in a small town in Australia ca.1939. She has a loving husband but feels that life is passing her by and that exciting things only happen to other people. Enter Sam Neill. He comes to town and things change drastically for her. I felt sorry for her character which rapidly becomes pathetic. This is a movie for people who don't need a whole lot of action and special effects. I also liked seeing Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward teamed up again. The first time was in The Thorn Birds where I believe they actually met and, sometime afterward, eventually got married.

"The Good Wife" is a film that seems to have a lot of quiet seductive power.... the story itself, which I found only minimally absorbing, is also somewhat lame and perhaps a bit goofy (Marge, a married woman, played by Rachel Ward, feels bored and unfulfilled in her rural Australian setting and first sleeps with her husband's younger brother, then begins to lust after a local barman played by Sam Neill...). However, the atmospheric setting, the scenery, the cinematography, the costumes, the characters, the enchanting background music - well, just about ALL elements of the film, are so rich and vibrant that they suck you right in, and more than make up for the rather daft story line.

Hence, "The Good Wife" is that sort of movie where you end up caring about the fates of the various players. You actually care about the denouement of the movie, because as the story unfolds, you really do start to care about the players as human beings, and you can't help but become interested in their individual destinies.

The creators of the film did an excellent job of recreating the look and feel of the time period of the story, which is set in 1939 Australia. I especially like the attention given to minute details that help to establish time and place and also give the movie a rich and full-bodied flavor. The eye-candy cinematography is just spectacular. This is easily one of the most "beautiful" movies I've ever seen. I'm glad I taped this movie off of a cable showing on TV. I will definitely be watching this one again!!

I saw the second half of this movie on cable starting from the point where Sam Neil came into town. Then the next day i caught the second half again. The story and the truth it brought to me was captivating. It brought many things to my mind. besides that it reminded me of many things it was all very atractivly shot with beutifull powerfull actors/actresses.

i noticed there is only one comment in 3 years about this film and feeling so strongly about it i worte this. I have noticed many have though nothing of this film. though it fake or a physcolical atempt at "showing us something" "being something" but i belive these peoples life expereance has not agreed with the content and for that reason they do not like it. It has seemed very real to me. Although the style of acting in many ways is more like stage acting and carried more by the writers ideas then by the "relisim" of the actors themselvs. But what true ideas the writer has shown us!