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Review:
 Oscar
Wilde, became famous writing silly farces. In 1892 he wrote a
little piece of fluff called “Lady Windemere's Fan.” This was one
of his snarkier pieces, and thus, as a work by the immortal king
of snark, has lasted in the world's memory far longer than it's
supposed to.
Writer Howard Himelstein should have left well enough alone.
First off, Wilde is NOT Shakespeare. His plays are impossible to
update. Second, this is supposed to be farce, not melodrama and
unless you leave the characters silly little cutouts, the damn
thing becomes more of a tragedy with witty morons snarking around
the edges. This just does NOT work.
IN short: The evil Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt), who is everyone's
mistress, has been found out, and her various lovers have all
dumped her simultaneously. So she pawns some of her jewelry and
heads off for fascist Italy, where all the best people spend the
holidays. Here the fabulously wealthy Robert Windermere (Mark
Umbers) and his decorous wife Meg(Scarlett Johansson) are renting
a villa and living the high life.
Robert meets Mrs. Erlynne and all of a sudden the latter is living
in a villa of her own and flirting with the likes of Lord "Tuppy"
(Tom Wilkinson), who ;happily admits to being a moron and thus
forces poor Meg into the arms of Lord Darlington (Stephen
Campbell-Moore). Had Himelstein and director Mike well enough
alone they might have been able to keep it the light comedy that
Wilde intended all along.
But Nooooooooooo… they had to update it and emphasize the very
serious subtext that makes the whole comedy aspect fall apart.
Farce becomes near tragedy and all the snarkiness that abounds in
everything Oscar Wilde did in this phase of his life seem really
inappropriate.
The acting is great, as one would expect from a cast like this.
One remembers why Hunt got that Oscar. But this is a gilded turd,
and as such isn't really worth the bucks.
Eric Lurio
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