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Susan Granger's review of "THE WINSLOW BOY" (Sony Pictures Classics Release)
If you're looking for an intelligently crafted, superbly acted, immensely engrossing, adult drama, this is the film for you. Writer/director David Mamet ("Oleanna," "The Spanish Prisoner") has adapted Terence Rattigan's renowned 1946 melodrama, which is based on the real-life story of a 13 year-old cadet, Ronnie Winslow (Guy Edwards), at the Royal Naval Academy who is accused of stealing a five-shilling postal order and sent home in disgrace. Convinced of their son's innocence, the Winslows (Nigel Hawthorne, Gemma Jones, Rebecca Pidgeon) persuade one of the country's leading lawyers, Sir Robert Morton (Jeremy Northam), a Conservative member of Parliament, to defend the lad in court. As the case proceeds, it challenges many long-accepted legal traditions and sets off a national outrage, pitting aristocrats against commoners and exacting a heavy price from the participants. A family of the utmost gentility, the Winslows, nevertheless, are determined to maintain their honor, steadfastly maintaining that their son is not guilty of lying, forgery, and theft. And, using a dark visual palette, Mamet adeptly reflects a time period when values and social structure were in flux. Despite the 1910 setting, the question raised by the film is timeless and universal: What is the price of justice? The story was filmed once before by Anthony Asquith in 1948, starring Robert Donat, Cedric Hardwicke, and Margaret Leighton, but this version is excellent although, in essence, it still remains a melodrama, never realizing the full tragic impact of the situation. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Winslow Boy" is an exquisitely etched 8. It's surprisingly provocative, filled to the brim with suspense and romance.
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