Oil on canvas
100.4 x 137.8 cm
Supply: Wikimedia Commons
I’ve wished to see this film for a very long time now. Listed here are my ideas on Meryl Streep’s and Jeremy Irons’ performances, and extra. Spoilers included.
Initially posted in Counter Arts on Medium on February 11, 2025
I simply watched The French Lieutenant’s Lady, and whereas I used to be impressed with the performing, the film didn’t bowl me over.
I beloved the best way it began, with Sarah on the jetty in her cape, turning her head to bore her gaze into poor Charles. I additionally appreciated the postmodernist system of the body, of a narrative inside one other story. Nonetheless, I felt the Victorian-era story was too drawn out whereas additionally not fledged sufficient. There weren’t sufficient threads to it, sufficient substances within the pudding. Finally, it felt like a vanilla concoction. I like vanilla, however for a narrative that appeared to have guess on some spice, there wasn’t sufficient of the latter within the film.
Meryl Streep performed her half fantastically, as she at all times does, however I felt, however, that she was pushed into doing extra mannerisms than highly effective performing within the embedded story. When Sarah tells Charles her putative story about her involvement with the French lieutenant, I felt she was indulging in these mannerisms. Not so, nonetheless, when she was in mattress with Charles — oh, I’ve spoiled that; however then it’s not a lot of a spoiler.
Lynsey Baxter as Ernestina, Charles’s fiancée, carried out fantastically too. She was the demure but fiery ingenue that her half known as for. And the scene with Charles reneging on his marriage contract to her was a profitable one within the film.
Jeremy Irons was fabulous in each tales, which I anticipated. And, not like Meryl Streep’s efficiency within the Victorian story, his wasn’t diluted by any affectations. He was actual and his turmoil transpired in each bit of each scene. In the long run, this resulted in his character overpowering that of Streep as Sarah, which might be the way it ought to have been. And I beloved that Streep as Anna dominated him within the modern body. However, I’m nonetheless left with the frustration that Streep didn’t present her full prowess on this movie.
After all, I perceive that Sarah is a slippery fish and that Streep needed to lead the viewer into believing Sarah was multiple means, however I nonetheless suppose the scene within the woods along with her account of her supposed love affair wasn’t convincing. It might have been convincing if Sarah was partly mad, and possibly the film desires to recommend that — actually there’s a scene about melancholy that does simply that — , however I felt her character was solely fickle, deluded within the sense of eager to dwell in some tales she conjured, and manipulative.
The costumes and ambiance of the Victorian streets, particularly with that gloomy sky, had been fantastic. However a film is extra than simply visuals. Once more, I felt it was missing in story.
Okay, the present-day body with Anna and Mike as lovers was sturdy, convincing, and at all times left us eager to know extra. In distinction, the Sarah and Charles story was a lot much less intriguing. Gentleman falls for a lady with a wild streak in Victorian England. He both will get to be along with her, or she finally ends up falling by way of the cracks of society or worse: lifeless. Or she finds a technique to obscure her previous and lead a slightly first rate life.
However then the film appears to have put extra curiosity within the framing system slightly than within the Victorian story. And that framing succeeds effectively.
Streep and Irons not solely really feel very actual and engaging as lovers, however their moments spent on the script and the scene the place they act out a part of the scene don’t diminish the impression of actuality within the Victorian conceit however slightly strengthen it. They usually achieve this as a result of Anna and Mike additionally share some historic details, which makes it look like they had been additionally researchers of social historical past slightly than solely actors rehearsing or frolicking on the movie set.
All in all, I’d say it was a well-put-together film, however not a satisfying one.
Thanks for studying!
To a happier, more healthy life,
Mira
