Day 36/38 - A Murder of Crows (1998)

A Murder of Crows (1998) feels like a fairly standard made-for-tv film—not a lot of depth, nor surprises, great locations (New Orleans and Key West), a few chase scenes, and acting that is not required to go very deep.

The film begins with ex-lawyer Lawson Russell (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) being transferred into a New Orleans prison. Once that is established, Lawson’s character begins voice-over narration for the whole story.  He takes us back to Mardi Gras where his character is being stalked (unknowingly) by a character in a devil costume. Lawson is defending rich client Thurman Parks III (Eric Stoltz in a pretty unmemorable role). Parks is guilty and when Lawson tries to give him up to the jurors, he ends up being disbarred.

After moving to Key West to run a fishing boat and write the novel he had been working on, he meets an elderly teacher named Christopher Marlowe (a very obvious age makeup job) who says he has a book he’s written about the murders of five lawyers, which he calls A Murder of Crows. Lawson reads it and returns to find the old man, only to learn from a police detective that Marlowe has died of a heart attack. 

Lawson keeps the manuscript, rewrites it as his own and has it published. After the book comes out and is a great success, a NOLA policeman, Clifford Dubose (Tom Berenger) reads the book and realizes that the five murders described are based on real cases and contain information only the police and murderer would know. Dubose begins to hunt Lawson who now has to find the murderer to clear himself.

There are a few plot twists that are memorable, maybe one real surprise, but on the whole the acting was uninspired. I usually like Gooding, Berenger and Stoltz as actors, but in the hands of a poor director, they often seem to be reading lines, ready to move on to the next scene.

A murder of crows (the collective name for a group of crows) is mentioned by Shakespeare in Macbeth.  There are some literary names that are important clues here, including the name of murderer.

A Murder of Crows works as an evening’s light entertainment. ***

Day 19/20 - The House of Mirth (2000)

The House of Mirth, directed by Terence Davies, is a sumptuous Edwardian morality tale of a beautiful but penniless young woman on the prowl for a husband but unwilling to lose her own sense of morality.  In this case, it is not all’s fair in love and war.

Gillian Anderson, stunning in 1906 wasp waist dresses, plays the tightly corseted and restrained American Lily Bart, who loves working lawyer Lawrence Selden (the handsome and reserved Eric Stoltz). They flirt, they talk of love, they kiss, they pretend indifference, but they both realize that what Lily wants will only come from a rich man who offers marriage. 

When a servant from Selden's hotel mistakes Lily for her friend Bertha, Lily buys the letters, the key to make her fortune. Instead, her sense of love for Selden (I assume) stops her from using them.

Bertha and her husband invite Lily to join them on their yacht for a Mediterranean cruise. Bertha conducts an affair, but Lily refuses to acknowledge it. In a surprising reversal of fortune, Bertha throws Lily off the yacht, and she becomes a social pariah to her friends. 

One friend's husband proposes that he will help her invest money in return to an alliance. She refuses. The wealthiest man of the film proposes to her, is rejected, and then rejects her when her situation changes for the worse and she says she would marry him. Eventually forced to work like the middle class Lily abhors, she reaches the end of her rope and must beg for charity from those few who could help.

The House of Mirth feels often highly stilted—the dialogue carries the sense of an upper class comedy of manners, but there is no laughter in the tragedy. Edith Wharton shares much with Henry James in her sense of what the high society does to the outcast. Being an outcast means remaining one to the end--even if one have lived one's life with a sense of morality. This is a story also of thwarted love--reminds me strongly of James' short story, The Beast in the Jungle.

The film uses lavish locations but often feels like a limited budget Masterpiece Theatre production.

The acting is the key here. Anderson is quiet moving in her portrayal, and she and Stoltz offer some wonderful love scenes. As Lily suffers, the depth of Anderson’s performance also grows. Numerous times we watch her hide her defeats from others but each becomes more devastating than the last. Only a couple of times, does the script allow her to show the pain she feels.

Laura Linney does a great turn as Bertha Dorset, the best friend turned enemy. Elizabeth McGovern brings the same sensibilities she shows in Downton Abbey. Dan Aykroyd is passable as the lecherous husband, but Anthony LaPaglia imbibes his wealthy Rosedale with a range of emotional reactions to Lily and her situation.

The House of Mirth (2000) **** (DVD)