Helen Hunt Filmography Part 15: A Good Woman
This Oscar Wilde adaptation looks great, but lacks the promised sizzle.
For a movie based on an Oscar Wilde play, this adaptation is a little short on zest. Oscar Wilde adaptations should be cheeky and a little bit frenetic. The tender heart hidden in the web of implausible intrigue and delightful double entendres.
Unfortunately nearly everyone is playing this dead serious, and the pacing is really slow.
Helen Hunt plays Mrs. Erlynn, a down on her luck woman who’s been locked out of all her sugar daddies’ money by their snobby wives…which is fair. It’s perhaps poor casting because Hunt is too sincere and earnest to be a charming, manipulator of men.
Helen Hunt wears the hell out of some 1930’s fashion.
Or perhaps it is perfect casting because Wilde is trying to upend the idea of the “bad woman”. When a woman like Mrs. Erlynn, who uses her beauty to get what she wants, is in fact kind and capable of selflessness, she undercuts the superiority of the “good women”.
The snobby, class conscious, morality police resent her for not playing by the rules. They are scandalized not just by the sex, but by Mrs. Erlynn’s ability to have what they have without the misery of unhappy marriages.
Wilde definitely preferred the Mrs. Erlynns of the world.
The only character who is remotely charming and amusing is Tuppy, (Tom Wilkerson). He alone seems to remember that this is an Oscar Wilde piece and has some fun with it. As Tuppy pursues Mrs. Erlynn, he is self-deprecating, aware of his own shortcomings, and generous towards others.
Scarlett Johansson is more convincing as the one delivering the smart-ass, Wilde-ian quips than the wide-eyed child bride.
Scarlett Johansson plays Meg Windermere, a naive ingeneu, who believes her devoted husband, Robert, is being seduced by Mrs. Erlynn. Despite her own disinterest in marriage, Mrs. Erlynn tries to teach Meg to value love over pride, and happiness over public opinion.
Ultimately the snobs get no satisfaction and
everything works out eventually because this is Oscar Wilde.
It’s not perfect, but it’s hard to dislike a movie set on a sunny Italian coast.
So we have to talk about this thing, that’s kind of awkward…
I don’t know what happened, but around this time Helen Hunt’s voice goes through a noticeable change. She loses a lot of inflection and range. It becomes almost monotone and sounds like talking is a real effort.
This issue comes and goes throughout the rest of her career, which is too bad.
