My feelings about "House of Mirth" (**1/2) and Lily Bart, the leading character were decidedly mixed. I wanted to be sympathetic to her plight as a single, independent woman in a hypocritical society hidebound by artificial notions of propriety, but her own actions kept getting in the way. First, she makes the huge mistake of offending her aunt, her primary source of income, by losing money at cards, then makes it worse by naively entering into a dubious scheme with a caddish married man to pay her debts. Then she turns down a young lawyer, the only man she really loves, because he's not rich or socially prominent enough (and also because he's oddly unwilling to make a definite commitment). When she stumbles upon a treasure trove of compromising letters written by the very married Mrs. Dorset to the lawyer, she refuses to make use of them after her arch rival maneuvers Lily into a compromising position with her husband in order to hide her own indiscretions. You might say that Lily takes this stand at least partly to protect the reputation of the man she loves, but when he offers to help her after she has been reduced to working as a companion/secretary to a rich biddy, she stubbornly turns him down and never tells him about the letters she has in her possession. Why is this woman so stupid and passive? Why is she so reluctant to take good advice and help when it's offered, even in good faith? Why doesn't she fight back with the weapons at her disposal? Writer-director Terrence Davies seems to be more interested in making Lily a martyr than a true heroine, but by the end, I couldn't help feeling that she had mostly herself to blame for her downfall. Despite my exasperation with the leading character, I was quite engrossed by the film. I love dialogue in which the characters speak in trivialities when you know that there's a whirlwind of suppressed emotions going on underneath. The movie was beautifully mounted and acted, especially by Gillian Anderson, but ultimately it's a frustrating downer.
Review of The House of Mirth
