FIRELIGHT
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Miramax Films Director: William Nicholson Writer: William Nicholson Cast:Sophie Marceau, Stephen Dillane, Dominique Belcourt, Kevin Anderson, Lia Williams, Joss Ackland
One of the reasons that critics and general audiences do not often agree is that professional reviewers do not generally like highly sentimental movies. Stories that might give a susceptible person a diabetic attack are too often the stuff of daytime TV soaps, sketchy dramas designed purely to evoke tears of pathos and cries of joy from their viewers. The problems of mushy productions are customarily unoriginal, the conclusions predictable.
Though "Firelight" may be guilty of swirling with Victorian suds, its story is a far cry from General Hospital. "Firelight" features exceptionally fine acting from Stephen Dillane and Sophie Marceau as the story's lovers, two people whose chemistry is so robust that you can feel them bursting within as they struggle to maintain a properly British restraint. As Elisabeth (Sophie Marceau), a Swiss woman who eventually becomes a governess to the prosperous English landowner Charles (Stephen Dillane), she must at first appear to be immune to his charm just as Charles must seem wholly businesslike in her magnetic presence. As their outer shell gradually cracks, their passions burst forth. We breathe a sigh of relief when their mutual affinity is fulfilled. Despite a predictable ending that leaves all loose ends happily secured, the picture casts a spell over its audience with director William Nicholson's gauzy lensing and his repeated, opportune use of the titled firelight. As Nicholson writes in his screenplay for the film, "In the firelight you do what you want, say what you want, be what you want. When the lamps are lit again, time starts again, and everything you said or did is forgotten. More than forgotten, it never happened."
This quote sums up the central theme of the narrative. The action is motivated by a strictly business arrangement made between Charles and Elisabeth, one with contemporary resonance, as Charles needs a woman to bear an heir to his estate. The surrogate mother must not know his name or habitation in this anonymous transaction. Whatever goes down, so to speak, must be absolutely forgotten. For the sum of 500 pounds--a princely amount in the England of the 1830's--Elisabeth is to submit to Charles's sexual advances for just three nights. She is to present him with her child nine months later and for that she will receive money she needs to pay her father's debts in Switzerland. Held apart by the conventions of the time (Charles may not marry her since his own wife is in a coma but yet alive), they are freed "in the magic of the firelight."
William Nicholson, who both scripted and helms the lush bodice-ripper, is known for his creation of "Shadowlands" and has a background with BBC for restrained dramas. We thus expect a picture much like the elegant and witty "Mrs. Brown," a movie with romantic overtones to match its intelligence. That is what we get. The initial scene is the most effective one. Charles and Elisabeth meet for the first time to work out the details of the contract and act thoroughly businesslike during their initial coupling. The very next evening, Elisabeth has shed the last article of protective clothing and has begun to enjoy her new, albeit temporary, job. By the third night the sparks are flying. Yet throughout, Charles and Elisabeth seem in denial, refusing to admit their mutual infatuation.
The supporting roles are splendid, particularly those of Joss Ackland as Charles's father, Lord Clare, whose profligate spending throws the estate into a Chekhovian bankruptcy; and little Dominique Belcourt as Louisa, the hell-raising heir to the estate who does not suspect that the woman who is serving as her governess and teacher is her own dear mother. Kevin Anderson is on screen for a disappointingly shor time in a role too small fo his talents--as the American sheep farmer who is negotiating a business deal with Charles and who, after his proposal of marriage to Elisabeth is turned down, replies with the most un-1830's comment, "It doesn't hurt to ask."
The lovely and ultra-refined Sophie Marceau is a true find in her first English role, one which could be a major breakthrough for her career. Christopher Gunning's score may be saccharine but is absolutely effective in pumping up the electric atmosphere of this carefully-paced tale, which involves such contemporary concerns as class consciousness, euthanasia, surrogate motherhood, and even the proper upbringing of children.
Rated R. Running time: 103 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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