I put off watching this for so long, and now I’ll bet we’re on the verge of an unbearably gorgeous 8k remaster, but all I’ve got is the decades-old DVD. In fact I’ve watched this DVD before, and it’s one of the reasons I started the blog. I rented it, put it on, and proceeded to half-ignore it while doing something or other on the computer… marked it as “seen” on some list even though a week later I remembered nothing of it… decided that pretending to watch films to check them off a list is a waste of time. Paying close attention then writing notes afterwards is arguably a much bigger waste of time, but a true passion/hobby should waste as much time as possible.
Set in the present day of the 1905 novel. Gillian Anderson and Eric Stoltz flirt at his flat, possibly setting the record for most charismatic Davies characters. Gil’s aunt Eleanor Bron is rich, but hanger-on Jodhi May (Nightwatching) is better at forming the kinds of relationships that will land a lucrative inheritance. Laura Linney is married (to Terry Kinney of the Ferrara Body Snatchers), is also into Stoltz, so there’s some intrigue about some love letters she’d written. Dan Aykroyd practically kidnaps Gil, who emphatically rejects him. Elizabeth McGovern’s character name is Carrie Fisher, and she has a daughter named Edith, and both these things are distracting. Anthony LaPaglia wanted to marry Gil, not anymore given her situation, but he’d still be willing to see her in private (wink wink). Gil refuses to follow the social conventions, messes up every relationship at every point in the movie, gets fired from the hat factory, and finally drinks all the opium just as Stoltz was coming to rescue her.
House of Mirth crossfades: