Tuesday, April 04, 2006

The Winslow Boy


Last night, James and I watched The Winslow Boy,one of our favorite movies. Since it had been years since we hadlast watched it, we had forgotten enough details to make it a very enjoyable watch all over again. It was only the second time that we've viewed it.

The movie is very slow-moving and cerebral. The interest is in the dialogue and the portrayed "fight for right", not in action or in high drama. Though the movie was rated G, I re-read a review in WORLD magazine which panned the movie, saying the characters were cold and distant. I say to that: Duh! The characters are British, living in the early 20th century! This family ran on principle, not on emotion, and that is the point. I actually find the movie to be very romantic, granted in a very restrained fashion, in the way that the father fights for his son's good name and in the budding romance between a man and a woman. I laughed out loud at the dialogue which ended the movie (an unusual way to end a movie, but strangely satisfying to me), said with a sparkle in the eye, a raised eyebrow, and a curling lip.

Jeremy Northam plays one of the main characters and I love his character in this movie, as well as in the movie Emma (with Gwyneth Paltrow).

This may seem silly, but I also enjoyed looking at the color-scheme in the Winslow home! I loved the egg-shell blue or orange-hued paint colors on the walls and in the paintings hanging on the walls. But watch what happens to those paintings as the movie progresses...