The Golden Bowl ★★½ 2000 (R) Beautiful but bloodless Merchant/Ivory adaptation of Henry James' complex 1904 novel set in turn-of-the-century London. Wealthy American aesthete Adam Verver (Nolte) dotes on his only daughter, Maggie (Beckinsale), and even buys her a husband—an impoverished Italian aristocrat, Prince Amerigo (a miscast Northam), whom she loves. But, unknown to both Ververs, the prince and Maggie's best friend, the equally poor Charlotte (Thurman), had a long ago affair that gets rekindled, even though Charlotte has become the wife of Adam. A studied menage a quartre where just what anyone knows (or suspects) is never made clear. 130m/C VHS, DVD, Wide. GB US FR Nick Nolte, Uma Thurman, Kate Beckinsale, Jeremy Northam, Anjelica Huston, James Fox, Madeleine Potter, Peter Eyre;
Director:
James Ivory;
Writer:
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala;
Writer:
Tony Pierce-Roberts;
Cameo:
Richard Robbins.
