Product Description

Riveting performances from an all-star cast highlight this passionate tale of a young heiress who must choose between love or money! Jennifer Jason Leigh (SINGLE WHITE FEMALE) is Catherine, a lonely young woman in search of happiness ... until she is swept off her feet by the handsome Morris Townsend (Ben Chaplin -- MURDER BY NUMBERS, THE THIN RED LINE). Suspicious of the young man's true intentions, however, her controlling father (Albert Finney -- ERIN BROCKOVICH, TRAFFIC) threatens to disown Catherine if she follows her heart and marries against his wishes! You're sure to find this timeless story both powerful and entertaining.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21127 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-09-03
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 115 minutes

Amazon.com
In biographies written before 1990, Jennifer Jason Leigh claims to have been born in 1958. Recently, she's changed that to 1962. In either case, she definitely looks a bit odd in this 1998 release playing a 20-year-old opposite the youthful Ben Chaplin. Even stranger is the fact that she's been cast as the ugly girl; after all, she was voted one of America's 10 most beautiful women by Harper's Bazaar. Still, this film captures to a T the Henry James novel on which it is based. The story concerns Catherine Sloper, a 19th-century heiress whose father disapproves of the man she loves. In a twisty plot, questions are raised about both her father's and her suitor's motives, and Catherine must untangle the connections between love and money. This provides fodder for Henry James's critiques of the shallowness and sexism of his society. Some find James's work stiff, self-important, and a bit dull, while others see him as the most astute social critic of his time, so your enjoyment of this film may be a matter of taste. But it's definitely a period piece done right, which is to say that it fully captures its era, and never stoops to anachronisms that would interrupt the viewer's sense of an older, crueler world. --James DiGiovanna

Customer Reviews

Perfectly played by all, staying true to the novel
As a great fan of Henry James, I much preferred this new film version of his story, rather than "The Heiress," whether that film is considered a classic or not. Other critics on this page have panned the new version, writing that it lacks subtlety, but what is so subtle about Morris bashing on the Slopers' front door and yelling at the top of his lungs, which is what happens in "The Heiress"--and certainly does NOT happen in the novel. For me, Jennifer Jason Leigh more closely captured the clumsiness, social awkwardness, and sensitivity of the novel's main character, more so than Olivia de Havilland's woman of steel out for revenge. The cast of the older film are all fine actors, but the screenplay was the clumsy one there. The cast of the newer Washington Square are all pitch-perfect, as if they had lifted their characters directly from the novel. Maggie Smith is truly amazing in her comic role as the aunt.

Very Good Adaptation of Henry James's Tragic Story
I waited for the Japanese release of this Henry James adaptation of "Washinton Square", but after 5 years I see no news of it. Now I bought a video of the film, to find the reason why this was neglected in our Japanese market. Well, though I still don't know why, I think I can somehow understand the distributors' unwillingness to release this one.

Because the film is a mixed bag. Not that "Washington Square" is a bad film. On the contrary, I would rather like to praise it, but with some reservation. First, remember, the story, based on one of James's earlier works of the same title, is a tragic one. Jennifer Jason Leigh is Catherine Sloper, whose father (Albert Finney) is a respected doctor in New York City of the early 19th century. Though Catherine is a good girl (morally, I mean), she is never praised as a beautiful girl, and she knows it, too. Though her father Dr. Sloper is not cold-hearted, he is emotionally detached from his only daughter while she is desperately seeks for his approval. Thus their life goes on at Washington Square in New York City.

Until a handsome man meets Catherine at a tea party, where he advances to her with a golden smile and skilled conversation. He is Morris Townsend (Ben Chaplin, "Lost Souls"), who, it seems, lived a wild life in the past, but now, he says, is back as reformed. Catherine falls in love for the first time in her life, and he says he is willing to marry her, but her father suspects that this young handsome guy is just a cad, good for nothing and after the money which she is to inherit after his death. But is he (doctor) really right in sternly rejecting him and his daughter's wish?

The story is melodramatic, but that is not the point. Director Holland allows the actors to be characters they play, so that they realize the complicated relations which are subtlely described in the original book. Certainly it is slow-moving, but if you pay attention not to the plot, but to the emotional changes happening in these people, you will enjoy the film. After all, James is not famous for gripping storytelling; it is his characters and the relations between them that we care, and the film deserves our praise very much for the reason that it brought them to very real thing on screen.

But the praise is not unconditional, for there are some questionable decisions made in the film. Holland rendered the piano recital scene a very embarrassing one (like "The Exocist"), but that is totally unnecesary (and the original book does not have Catherine humiliated that way). Casting is also strange. Jason Leigh, herself very good, is, I am afraid, a bit miscast because Catherine should be, I thought, a little younger. Ben Chaplin and Albert Finney are good, but Maggie Smith's meddlesome Mrs. Penniman, who gives some comic (but slightly cruelly depicted) taste, looks uncomfortable. Probably that is because we see her playing more serious, no-nonsense characters, as she did in "Secret Garden" "Gosford Park" and others.

Though this is not as good as William Wyler's "The Heiress", director Holland made a splendid job here. Some of the camera work is also superb (see the sweeping movement of the opening scene), but sometimes her direction goes too far, as I pointed out. But as a whole, a very good costume drama.

love hurts
Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as Catherine Sloper,a clumsy,shy and innocent only daughter of Doctor Sloper(Albert Finney). Her mother died at her birth and her father doesn't seem to like Catherine much. Morris Townsend(Ben Chaplin)falls in love with her but he's not rich and her father starts to believe that Morris just wants to marry Catherine for her money. If she marries Morris her father will disinherit her. What will Catherine do?

The performances of Jennifer Jason Leigh and the handsome Ben Chaplin are fine. So is Albert Finney role as the strict father. The music of the movie is beautiful.

Though the ending was not what I expected,(I actually felt disappointed)I actually can say that I liked the movie(after I watched for the second time). If you like period movies, like me, you should take a look at Washington Square.