James Ivory’s unbelievably tepid direction makes this 1979 Henry James adaptation all but unwatchable. The choices he makes seem meant to confirm the popular idea of James as a punishing, static, imponderable author; what gives James his greatness—his structure, his psychology, his honesty—has been left out or glossed over. Apparently, this kind of drabness is exactly what some people want as “art cinema”—it was a modest success on the subtitles circuit, perhaps because anything so agonizing is automatically perceived as “improving.” With Lee Remick, Robin Ellis, Lisa Eichhorn, Kristen Griffith, and Tim Woodward.
