The Portrait of a Lady (1996)

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Not everyone can be Merchant and Ivory, too bad this team didn't realize this. It took 2 tries to even get through it... I walked out of the theater on first viewing. Well the second wasn't much better. So much waisted talent, source material, set design. I do blame the director. This is an absolute mess! Even the characters are forgettable, the scenes far too long, the pace horrible slow. I'm trying to write enough lines to get this review in, but what is there to say, its just a bad film all the way around. a bad film a good story but a bad film. Don't waste your time. Seek another film of this period to enjoy.

This film is well-made, but there is a severity or coldness about it which is false to the temperament of the novel by Henry James on which it is based. Not so much in the portrayal of Gilbert Osmund by John Malkovich (although he brings to it his trademark air of sick malevolence, it seems excessive, not quite in key, even for the evil Gilbert Osmund), but very much so in the manner in which the heroine, Isabel Archer, is represented. In the novel she is a creature of passion; in the film, she is quite rightly adrift (true to the original) but altogether too much in the manner of an iceberg off the English coast rather than as an American "jeune fille" in sunny Italy. What passion she is given has a tortuous, fantastic character, represented by skewed hallucinations rather than by the robust erotic musings of innocent naiveté.Consequently, the movie ambles along, technically perfect but ultimately boring. Characters who appear to be bored and indifferent to their own lives not surprisingly fail to rouse in the audience any compensating interest. Ironically, it is given to the veteran actor John Gielgud (albeit perhaps unwittingly) to pronounce judgment upon this film in his character's dying scene: as Isabel fixes upon him an intent gaze, rapt with the serious business of grasping to her bosom a pearl of wisdom from this aged man poised on the brink of his ultimate odyssey, Gielgud emits as his final word-to-the-wise an elaborate yawn. In this curious version of James's energetic novel even death is a bore.

This film is about a wealthy American heiress and her romantic pursuits of varying success in Europe."The Portrait of a Lady" is immensely dull. The pace is slower than a snail, with many self indulgent artistic shots in between the already very slow plot. To make it even more boring, every character delivers their line in a flat and monotonous way. That may be the way how upper class speaks, but it is terribly dull and emotionless in a film. There is no emotional climax in the film either, everything is just plain and boring. Even the plethora of big stars can do nothing to save this film from being a bore.

I found this to be one of the BEST films I've ever been privileged to watch. Nicole Kidman is 'superb' in this film, as is John Malcovich, Barbara Hershey & Viggo Mortensen (others too, but these stand out). As I was watching the film, I couldn't help but think that Malcovich played the part of a Narcissist. I read the review and didn't see this mentioned, but I am wondering if others have also felt the same about the part he plays. I myself have experience being married (now separated) from a Narcissist....I recognize Kidman being treat as an 'object' not a human being with feelings & needs of her own. He was very cruel to her. This film is has amazing brilliance, and shows truly how a woman can fall prey to a manipulative, selfish man, and what it takes to get out from under one. Very deep!!