The Handmaid’s Tale (1990)

Directed by Volker Schlöndorff. Starring Natasha Richardson, Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway, Elizabeth McGovern, Victoria Tennant, Aidan Quinn, Traci Lind, Blanche Baker. [R]

Austere dystopian story from the Margaret Atwood book of the same name, as dreary as it is murky, a patchwork of totalitarian motifs, clashing design/world-building elements, and inconclusive themes. The “handmaid” whose tale it’s supposed to be is Richardson, caught trying to escape the U.S. (now called “the Republic of Gilead”) with her husband and daughter. She is trained to become a broodmare/concubine for privileged men who cannot reproduce with their spouses, and is eventually assigned to become the vessel for the “Commander”’s (Duvall) seed, whose icy wife (Dunaway) is barren. Too many half-baked ideas and plot elements are in play, often referenced or introduced in an abrupt or sideways fashion, but rather than add texture to the world of this fable, it only makes the future seem alternately befuddling and obvious. A few good performances hint at dimension for the various symbols in play, but since everything is so emotionally remote, there’s no interest in what becomes of the protagonist, or the lackey (Quinn) she grows close to, or the daughter of hers who’s out there somewhere. Screenplay by Harold Pinter. The novel was later adapted into a television series.

42/100