The Portrait of a Lady (1996)

Directed by Jane Campion. Starring Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey, Martin Donovan, Valentina Cervi, Richard E. Grant, Viggo Mortensen, Mary-Louise Parker, Christian Bale, Shelley Duvall, Roger Ashton-Griffiths. [PG-13]

Murky, remote reshaping of the Henry James novel depicting the harsh life lessons learned by Isabel Archer, an independent American woman in 1880s London, when she’s steered into marrying Malkovich’s malicious widower. Coming off the Oscar-winning The Piano, director Campion proves to be an uneasy fit with the material, more devoted to conspicuous camerawork and formal extravagances than telling an engaging story; her influence is most clearly felt in a pair of arty (and ineffectual) touches: a prologue with a muddled juxtaposition of the identities and experiences of ladies in the Victorian era with those of modern women, and a transitional dream sequence that resembles a pretentious student film. Being handsomely dressed can’t compensate for the indulgent length. Kidman is okay and Hershey (as the schemer who guides Isabel into abandoning her independence) is better, but there are numerous ill-tuned performances elsewhere, like Malkovich being so openly sinister and manipulative it’s difficult to relate to the premise that Isabel was ever enchanted by him, or Parker as a friend of the heroine with a speaking style so contemporary she sounds insincere, even snide. John Gielgud and Shelley Winters make welcome walk-ons.

48/100