Washington Square
Director: Agnieska Holland (dir. of The Secret Garden)
Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ben Chaplin, Albert Finney, Maggie Smith
Rated PG
Based on the novel by Henry James

Catherine Sloper (Leigh) is an unattractive, awkward woman with few social graces. But she has an honest, loyal heart and a tremendous capacity for love; these are the qualities that endear her to Morris Townsend (Chaplin), the handsome, worldly young man who seeks her hand in marriage. Or so he says. Catherine's father (Finney) is doubtful that anyone could ever love his daughter and suspects the unemployed Morris only wants Catherine for her money.

And so a mystery of sorts begins: Is Morris' love true, or is he only a fortune seeker? Does Dr. Sloper's resistance to Morris arise out of fatherly concern or personal pride? The answer is unclear because both men are complex creatures. Finney as Dr. Sloper is superb. I despised his character at times, but also felt I understood him, which only made it more frustrating that he was the way he was. Chaplin is well-suited to his role because he is so earnest, with such an open, innocent face; however, that same boyishness suggests the possibility that there might exist in him some degree of selfishness, immaturity, petulance. There are two sides to every coin, after all. Montgomery Clift played the character of Morris in the original film adaptation, "The Heiress" (1949); he possessed that same quality of suspicious youthful exuberance (oh dear, I've used up all my adjectives).

Leigh is ... well, I am always up in the air about Jennifer Jason Leigh. I can't decide if she is extremely talented or just a big fake, so I am going to take the middle ground and say that, given the right role she is appropriate (e.g. "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle," "Dolores Claiborne," "Short Cuts"). She always has the same sort of catatonic air about her; sometimes it works. In "Washington Square" she is pretty good at playing the queer duck, though looks a bit too old to be playing a woman in her mid 20s (Leigh is 40ish). Oh well.

The story is what's great, and the characters, too. Usually in a movie with this theme there is an obvious bad guy and an obvious good guy; all the viewer need do is root for one and hiss at the other. In "Washington Square" the viewer has to pay close attention because people's motives and sentiments are not cut and dry. Just like in real life, the characters have a conflicting mixture of attributes

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