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The House of Mirth



Directed by Terence Davies. Davies’ 1988 "Distant Voices, Still Lives," remains one of the great movies, a vivid autobiographical portrait of a Liverpool working-class family terrorized by a brutal father. What made "Distant Voices" great is Davies’ elliptical yet emotional approach, with impressionistic flashes of "story" held together by song-as-ritual. Davies’ perseverent adaptation of Edith Wharton’s tragic 1905 novel, "The House of Mirth," captured in meticulous widescreen images, does not retreat from the impassioned stylization of his earlier work. Music is less important. Yet there are fastidiously shaped performances, particularly Gillian Anderson’s brilliant turn as a doomed, headstrong young New York socialite whose broaches of civility are not countenanced at the turn-of-the-century past, and missteps in manners lead to her exclusion and disgrace. Anderson is a revelation. Story goes that Davies never saw "X-Files," but instead saw a photograph of Anderson in a magazine and knew that her face held the light that Lily must burn with and then fade. The heart-stopping moments of eloquent visual beauty in Davies’ prior filmography are exchanged for something equally valuable: a work of emotional astringency that builds to an exceptional emotional crescendo and leaves us suspended with heavy hearts at the emotional folly that brought Lily to this place. Abiding sorrow is a constant in Davies’ films, and his masterful orchestration of the pulse of "The House of Mirth" takes the breath away. The meditative focus he has brought to bear on images and sequences in past films is instead parceled out over the course of a two-hour, twenty-five minute narrative, and the result is quietly, mournfully shattering. With Eric Stoltz, Laura Linney, Anthony LaPaglia, Terry Kinney and Dan Aykroyd.

The House of Mirth

Music Box (about theatre)
3733 N. Southport, (773)871-6604
Fri & Mon-Thu 5:20, 8, Sat-Sun 1:30, 4:10, 6:50, 9:30

Wilmette (about theatre)
1122 Central, Wilmette, (847)251-7411
Fri-Sun 1, 4, 6:45, 9:30, Mon-Thu 2, 4:45, 8

THE END

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