Director James Ivory, who has a string of critical successes and box office clinkers to his name (The Guru, Roseland), can chalk up another one. The subtleties of Henry James' 1878 novel are so ill-suited to today's movie audiences, in fact, this will satisfy only those who can relax into the luxurious autumn-in-New England scenery, James' quaint dialogue and the beauty of Lee Remick rustling about in bouffant silks. She plays a Continental woman whose marriage to a German nobleman is in trouble. Then, in the U.S. to visit relatives and fortune-hunt, she stalks a dull but wealthy gentleman in the China trade, Robin (Poldark) Ellis. Everybody's well-rounded sentences crackle with meaning. But subtle as Remick is, she never conveys the wickedness that ought to lie beneath her porcelain complexion. Only the enfant terrible of her American kin, Lisa (Yanks) Eichhom, is up to any real deviltry. This is sedate entertainment, shamelessly prim, and for once, it is something for the fainthearted. (Not rated)
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