A Vingança de Bette

"Cousin Bette" is a witty and deliciously mean-spirited black comedy. The operative term, however, is "mean-spirited," so this film is not for all tastes. Cousin Bette is victimized (at least in her own mind) by her selfish and unfeeling relatives. Based on a Balzac novel, the story follows Bette's attempts to find love and to get even with those she believes have wronged her. Things don't ever work out as Cousin Bette plans, but the lady proves she is adaptable. Jessica Lange, despite her beauty made me believe that she was an unattractive spinster. Bob Hoskins was, as always, excellent, as was Elizabeth Shue, who nearly stole the show. Good stuff. Recommended.

I'm not familiar with Balzac's novel, but I've read a ton of Romantic literature. And this is one of its classic variations (The virtuous are redeemed). I would never have selected this movie myself (friends did) but I enjoyed it. If I described this as Madame Iago, you'd have the entire plot. Nothing is quite so much fun as watching someone who's been disrespected revenging herself on a crowd, especially after how needlessly cruel they've been. Since the playing field will never roll the arrangement back in Bette's favor, why not just destroy everyone? It's like a bomb went off when she's done. I am in no way a fan of Lange, but she's adequate (while looking distressingly like Jim Carrey in drag).

On the minus side, the lead-up to the 1848 Revolution is trivialized. The writing is extremely weak (Point A is always too overtly connected to Point B), and the lighting of every scene is too brazen. The accents are all over the place, which becomes very distracting.

The plot is complicated, too much so to describe in 1,000 words. Let's just say Cousin Bette is a tale of familial revenge set in 1840s Paris. Cousin Bette is the spinster aunt of a large wealthy family in the throes of loosing it all; money, dignity and respect. As they struggle, Bette (Lange) weaves her plots, many of which go astray working unintended consequences. This is a delightful black comedy that I liked very much, more so than most reviewers and commentators. If you have a predilection for this kind of movie, jump right in.

A somewhat sanitised version of the Balzac classic which departs disappointingly from the original story. Jessica Lang is far too pretty a version of the downtrodden, wizened old hag Bette of the original and so conveys none of her deviousness in the many schemes to avenge herself against her condescending relatives. Missing completely from the film is arch-whore Valerie, a central character of the book's plot, who dies a grim death from a disfiguring tropical disease at the conclusion, thus removing an important moral message of the tale. Most of Balzac's other works viz. Madame Bovary, contain one of these. That said, costumes and furniture are fairly faultless which shows Hollywood has at least tried to do justice to a great book.

GOOD. Pleasant satirical comedy to watch. Set at the end of the first half of the 19th century, it has great costumes, renowned actors, and an excellent soundtrack. By the way, the soundtrack is filled with great classics of classical music from that period. The script is well constructed and intelligible with lots of satire and sarcasm. The pace of the film is very busy, with the succession of several events every minute. I gave it a 7 because I didn't see anything extraordinary, exceptional, captivating, exciting, or different from other better films that I have seen that could elevate it. As for my recommendation to IMDb moviegoers, yes, I recommend it.