FEAST OF JULY
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1995 Ben Hoffman
When you see the words "A Merchant Ivory Production," you can be forgiven if you expect the very best in filmmaking. Remember A ROOM WITH A VIEW and HOWARD'S END, among others? It is therefore with regret that I have to report that FEAST OF JULY does not live up to their usual work.
The film opens with Bella Ford (Embeth Davidtz whom you will remember from SCHINDLER'S LIST) trudging across a barren wasteland in England. This scene should have been edited to half its length. Bella falls or sits down and suddenly there is blood as she gives birth to a dead baby. Bella buries the child and continues walking, searching for the whereabouts of Arch Wilson (Greg Wise), who after fathering the child, abandons Bella.
When Bella finally makes it into town, the man who lights the street lamps (Ben Wainwright) sees her, and invites her to stay with his wife (Gemma Jones) and their three handsome sons, Jedd (James Purefoy), Matty (Kenneth Anderson), and Con (Ben Chaplin). As one would guess, the three sons are immediately enchanted by Bella and are determined she will be theirs. When harvest time arrives they sit down to the Feast of July; hence, the title.
Just as Bella finally chooses Con to be her fiance, tragedy strikes the family with the arrival of Wilson, the man who had abandoned Bella.
What detracted greatly from the film was the ending. Somehow Paul Bradley, the screenplay writer, or perhaps it was Ms. Davidtz, failed to elicit any sympathy for Bella. Without the sympathy the film ends on a bad note.
2 Bytes
4 Bytes = Superb
3 Bytes = Too good to be missed.
2 Bytes = So so.
1 Byte = Save your money.
-- Ben Hoffman
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