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Appearances are deceiving, something Oscar Wilde understood very well. A Good Woman is an updated version of Lady Windermere’s Fan, Wilde’s witty look at appearances versus reality in “society,” with plenty of jockeying for position and money tossed in for good measure.
A Good Woman has been moved in time and place to 1930 on the Amalfi coast — all that rigidly controlled social order and great costumes, hurrah!
Helen Hunt stars in this story as the calculating Mrs. Erlynne, a golddigger first encountered as she flees New York and a pile of unpaid bills. Time is the enemy for Mrs. Erlynne, who is accustomed to being a kept woman. She decides to make her way to a sunny spot for the rich and idle and extract money from one Mr. Windermere (Mark Umbers).
He and Mrs. Windermere (Scarlett Johansson) are newlyweds enjoying Italy; Mrs. Erlynne makes her approach to Mr. Windermere as he buys his little wife a birthday present.
Soon enough, it would appear, she has him in her thrall. Something is going on between Mrs. Erlynne and Mr. Windermere, and it’s costing him plenty.
Will it cost him his marriage? Events and gossip escalate in A Good Woman until even the innocent Mrs. Windermere cannot ignore the fact that something untoward is going on between her husband and the older, worldly Mrs. Erlynne. But what?
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Quick to attempt to comfort the wounded wife is Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore), a well disguised cad. Also in the mix is the rich and bored Tuppy (Tom Wilkinson), who sees clearly what sort of person Mrs. Erlynne is — honest — and has fallen madly in love with her.
What a surprise then, when the allegedly wicked Mrs. Erlynne sacrifices her own happiness to help Mrs. Windermere save her marriage ...
A Good Woman is engaging and pretty to look at, and it’s tough to argue with Wilde’s writing, updates notwithstanding. Howard Himelstein, who wrote the screenplay for the film, says he moved the action to the 1930s because the era is so similar to today in its sharp division between haves and have-nots.
Maybe so. A Good Woman is a bit of a muddle at the ending, but the performances are pleasant (Tom Wilkinson is outstanding) and the humour is quick and subversive. It all plays more like a good episode of Masterpiece Theatre than a feature film, but in these dog days of Pink Panthers and curious little monkeys, we’ll take whatever we can get.
Bottom line
Wilde’s cruel but funny (and accurate) view of the social pecking order tends to translate well to the screen. Worth seeing to watch Helen Hunt spin an unattractive character into a hero and, as this was filmed a few years ago, to watch Scarlett Johansson at the start of her red-hot career.
(This film is rated G)