The Governess (1998)

What a beautiful movie!

Great Film overall

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Another great movie with Minnie ! It's sad that she had a meteoric career because she really stood out.Here, she plays a surprising Jew girl in Britain at Victorian time. Even if her family is wealthy, the death of her father leads her to search for work. She gets it as a governess of a spoiled young girl leaving in a isolated island. During her stay, she would find love and participate in the invention of photography. Thus, there are a lot of ideas, emotions, feelings here that makes a fast, gripping movie. I think that this lonely place helps to maximize the tension, all above that the sets and costume are beautiful and for modern eyes of cities settlers, it looks fairy! As it's about leaving home, making a trip and dividing faiths, it's funny to notice that human always carry a luggage that is weightless and is the ultimate glue for people: the libido! Unaware of it, even when Minnie is locked in a tiny island for working and inventing photography, this pulsing has accompanied her, lurking and waiting for the perfect time to get out: it's not really surprising that the first takes are nude composition and having lost her dear father, Minnie falls in love with the only mature man.As her story is told with a lot of heart, fragility and truth, it leaves a warmly memory!

After her father is murdered, Rosina (Minnie Driver) must marry without love or strike out and try something different. She changes her name and takes a job as a governess.Of course, she also has to hide her Jewishness and learn to be a Protestant.Her employer, Charles Cavendish (Tom Wilkinson) is a photographer working on a way to fix the photos he takes so that they last more than a day. She shows an interest in his work and spends her spare time helping. As expected, Minnie Drivers sensuality soon captivates him. He gives up his photographs of nature and gets into portraiture.He realizes that he is not her intellectual equal and, when he discovers that he was in love with a Jewess, he turns very cruel.She returns to London during a cholera epidemic, finding her mother dead. He new knowledge enable her family to survive, and she flourishes.Driver was outstanding, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers was also good as the son.Sandra Goldbacher's first feature film shows much promise.

The myth of the governess in English literature, seems to have been the inspiration for film maker Sandra Goldbacher, who makes an auspicious debut with this feature. Never had a first time director been so blessed to be working with a winning team behind her. The glorious cinematography by Ashley Rowe, the music by Ed Shearmur, to name just two, make "The Governess" a satisfying movie to watch.We are taken to the England of the 1830s. The story shows us a Jewish family of means. Rosina, the oldest daughter is a sophisticated young woman who seems to thrive in that society. When her father is killed, Rosina's world goes to pieces. She decides to seek employment as a governess for a young girl in the Island of Skye, in the Hebrides. The trip Rosina undertakes in primitive transport makes her think whether she had made the right choice, or not. All she sees is the lush green of the English countryside around her. Her employers are a Scotish couple of means. Charles Cavendish is a man of science working in his own kind of photography. His wife, seems to be a woman who is bored out of her mind. The young charge, Clementina, doesn't like the idea of being bossed by the new governess. Rosina has changed her name and passes herself as a Christian by the name of Mary Blackchurch. There is also a young son, Henry, who is away at school.Mary, who has received an education in London, surprises Mr. Cavendish and soon becomes his assistant in his experiments. The admiration Charles feels toward the young woman soon turns into a passion that is reciprocated by Mary, who we are led to believe has not had any sexual experience before. This newly found passion in Charles soon gets the best of him as he feels it makes him neglect his interest, which has been helped immensely by Mary's innate intelligence.In a surprising turn of events, Mary decides that since she can't have Charles, she must leave the island and return to London, not before presenting Mrs. Cavendish with the naked picture of her husband she took, which appears to have been the excuse for the break in their illicit relationship. At the end, Rosina is back to London where she is seen practicing the new technique she learned by working with Charles in the island.Minnie Driver totally dominates the film. Her Rosina/Mary is perhaps her best role in her career. Some comments point to the fact that Ms. Driver seems older to play this woman, but in our humble opinion, she seems to have an understanding of the character and makes it come alive. Tom Wilkinson, a great actor that probably hasn't been recognized as he should, does an outstanding job in capturing Charles. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers plays Henry the son that comes back from school and ends up falling in love for the governess. Harriel Walter and Florence Hoath play Mrs. Cavendish and Clementina well.The film is a triumph for a novel director. Ms. Goldbacher clearly shows to be a voice to be reckoned with in the English cinema.

*****SPOILERS*********This movie was truly awful. This woman deceives her employers right from the start and then selfishly proceeds to tear them apart. At the end you see her making a profession out of the trade she'd learned from the father of her "pupil". I put pupil in quotes because the governess never really seems to teach the child anything. She seems to hate her and can't stand being near her. I felt sorry for the little girl who simply wanted to be loved, absent that, it was understandable that she would say and do outrageous things just to get attention but the viewer wasn't supposed to sympathize with the little girl, the viewer was supposed to sympathize with the governess who hated her pupil and manipulated and deceived her employers. I just couldn't do it. This was not the story of a self made woman, rather, it was a window into the mind of one who uses others at every opportunity with no other thought for anyone outside of her own family. I couldn't stand the governess! This was a really horrible movie. I only paid one dollar to rent it but even that was too much!