~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ eye WEEKLY May 5 1994 Toronto's arts newspaper ...free every Thursday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FILM FILM
WIDOWS' PEAK
Starring Mia Farrow, Joan Plowright and Natasha Richardson.
Screenplay by Hugh Leonard. Directed by John Irvin.
(STC) Opens May 6.
SCANDALS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND
by
Gary Michael Dault
A widow's peak is what you'd usually call that little dart of hair pointing down to your eyebrows--Count Floyd had a serious one, for example--but in the case of John Irvin's new film, WIDOWS' PEAK, is a place. A literally named place, too: a hill overlooking a small Irish town named Kilshannon, upon which are situated a number of houses solely inhabited by a gaggle of widows.
Of these assorted widows, one takes precedence. The formidable Mrs. Doyle-Counihan (Joan Plowright) is a well-to-do matriarch who does not suffer fools gladly, not even her rather foolish son Godfrey (Adrian Dunbar), the only man permitted to live up on Widows' Peak. Godfrey is a highly eligible bachelor, mostly because he is virtually the sole candidate.
Mrs. Doyle-Counihan's chief amusement, in addition to keeping tabs on the community, is being driven about Widows' Peak and Kilshannon in her regal Rolls-Royce, piloted by her salty, cigar-smoking female chauffeur (chauffeuse?). Mrs. D-C waves airily at the villagers as if she were the Queen--which, in Widows' Peak, she is.
Let's see now. There's only one other outsider (Godfrey is an outsider because of his sex) allowed to live in the otherwise widow-dense village: the quietly mysterious and oddly vulnerable-seeming, penniless, middle-aged spinster Miss O'Hare (Mia Farrow). Everyone seems to keep a motherly eye on Miss O'Hare, for reasons that are unclear for quite a long time.
Be patient, now--just a teeny little more plot. Miss O'Hare suddenly starts receiving the courtship overtures of Clancy, the town's dentist (Jim Broadbent). Into this not very volatile mix comes, all the way from America, the glamorous war-widow Edwina Broome (Natasha Richardson). Slim and sleek in her creamy Chanel suits, capped teeth as white as tiny refrigerator doors, lips as red as a wicked witch's apple, hats as wide as open umbrellas, her blonde hair tumbling down from her hairpins just often enough to make your chest tighten whenever it happens--she's lovely, is Mrs. Broome (a new Broome sweeps clean), and really, she's too much for Widows' Peak.
She's certainly too much for Miss O'Hare, who appears to despise her (Mrs. Broome appears to despise her back). And when Godfrey predictably falls in love with the beautiful Americanized English widow, she's almost too much for the redoubtable Mrs. Doyle-Counihan.
So then this is ENCHANTED APRIL again? All cloche hats (this is the '20s), champagne, beautiful motor cars, flirting and shy, gentlemanly declarations of affection?
No, WIDOWS' PEAK is a mystery story. A funny, charming, witty mystery story, murder and mirth in equal measure.
Now this is difficult to manage. So difficult that, as delightful as much of WIDOWS' PEAK is, there is a lot of warping and distorting of the action and even of the nature of the personalities involved in order for the mystery to happen. The script of WIDOWS' PEAK--which is that increasing rarity, an original work--is by Irish writer Hugh Leonard. Leonard is a clever bloke--he's a novelist and playwright as well as a screenwriter and prolific writer of fodder for television. His best known work is probably his play DA, a considerable success on Broadway in 1978 (where it won Leonard a Tony Award).
Having established Leonard's cleverness, it must now be said that WIDOWS' PEAK is just a little bit too clever. Sure, the plot is devious enough to keep you happily befuddled until the very end--which is nice--but when you look back over the journey, it all seems pretty incredible. In fact the more you ponder it, the more unsatisfying and unlikely the whole thing becomes. In the end, it's the charm you go for, not the revelation.
One of the problems lies in the casting. Natasha Richardson and Joan Plowright seem fine (Natasha's accent wavers all over the place but then I guess it's supposed to), but Mia Farrow feels wrong. Originally, back in the early '80s when Hugh Leonard was trying to get WIDOWS' PEAK produced, there was talk of Farrow and her mother, Maureen O'Sullivan, taking the parts of Mrs. Broome and Miss O'Hare respectively. And now Mia plays the part originally intended for her mater. Quel irony.
The trouble is--and it's a kind of tribute to Mia Farrow's enduring ingenue good looks--that she doesn't look old enough or act old enough to be this impecunious middle-aged spinster. Wearing a mothy old cardigan with holes in it is not a sufficient indication of genteel poverty. And she's much too perky to seem the age she's playing.
Then again, I cannot abide Mia Farrow's acting under scarcely any circumstances at all. For me, she's ruined every Woody Allen film she's been in except for BROADWAY DANNY ROSE and HUSBANDS AND WIVES (where she was expected to be as flat and two-dimensional as she otherwise always is). And here in WIDOWS' PEAK, La Farrow is flat, tremulous and vague--with that trademark look of utter vacuity in her eyes that frequently seems to get mistaken for depth of feeling or something. Anyhow, WIDOWS' PEAK would fare better without her.
Director John Irvin, best known probably as an action director for such films as HAMBURGER HILL (1986), GHOST STORY (1981) and Arnold Schwarzenegger's RAW DEAL (1985), does well enough with WIDOWS' PEAK, proving that, despite being saddled with Ms Farrow, he can still muster a light touch.
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