FIRELIGHT A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
The impoverished Elisabeth has been paid 500 pounds, which in the early 1800s when the story FIRELIGHT is set would have been a considerable fortune. All she has to do is travel from her native Switzerland across the sea to England and spend three nights with a stranger in order to conceive his child. (Apparently getting pregnant was easier and more certain in days gone by.) They are never to be seen together then or after. And she has to give up the child immediately after its birth.
All goes according to plan until Elisabeth, played with fetching beauty and intense conviction by Sophie Marceau from ANNA KARENINA and BRAVEHEART, decides to find her long lost daughter. After composing numerous unsent letters to her "English daughter," she arranges to become her governess.
The seven-year-old child, Louisa (Dominique Belcourt), has become a hellion who goes through several governesses a year. Her overindulgent father, Charles Godwin, is played with tenderness by Stephen Dillane from DEJA VU and WELCOME TO SARAJEVO. Charles doesn't seem to mind that his child throws one temper tantrum after another. He just wants her to be happy, and disciplining her seems cruel to him. John lives with his comatose wife, his spoiled daughter, and an understanding sister-in-law, who runs the house for him with the expectation that he will want to marry her when her sister finally dies completely.
When John realizes whom he has accidentally hired as Louisa's new governess, he orders Elisabeth to leave immediately, but he finds out that governesses need a month to find a new situation. During that month, Elisabeth is determined to make Louisa want to learn how to read. She uses a tough love approach, locking them in the room together. She promises John that anything she does to Louisa, she will do to herself as well. When she throws paint at Louisa to punish her, she does the same to herself.
Kevin Anderson has a minor part as the sincere sheepherder from Ohio, John Taylor, who is visiting his friend Charles. With his wide-brimmed felt hat, John is dashingly handsome and would like nothing better than to take Elisabeth home to America as his bride.
The best and most touching scene comes when Louisa realizes that her teacher is her mother. Handled delicately but movingly, it is likely to reduce many to tears.
The writer of NELL and SHADOWLANDS, William Nicholson writes and for the first time directs in FIRELIGHT. Although the film is pure formula, it is so well executed that the audience soon forgets that they've seen all of this before. The actors make the characters so genuine and touching that one doesn't mind the film's being so predictable.
Nicholson devotes careful attention to the smallest details. "All these huge rooms, and we live less than three feet from the fire," John reflects, reminding us how cold those large estate homes must have been.
The movie focuses on three questions. Will John throw the new governess out after a month as he promised? Will his old passion for her be rekindled? And will Louisa break out of her shell and end her defiance? Yes, these are all easily guessed, but the beauty of FIRELIGHT is that it still radiates a special magic in its presentation.
FIRELIGHT runs 1:43. It is rated R for sex, nudity and brief profanity and would be fine for teenagers.
The film has just begun to open in the United States. In the San Jose area it has not yet opened.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: www.InternetReviews.com
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