An archetypal Merchant-Ivory period production, THE EUROPEANS is a film adaptation of Henry James’ eponymous 1878 short novel, mid-19th century, the Wentworths are a wealthy family dwelling in rural Boston, and Mr. Wentworth (Addy) has three adult children, Charlotte (New), Gertrude (Eichhorn) and Clifford (Choate), while the family intends to tie the knot between a nonconformist Gertrude and the local Unitarian minister Mr. Brand (Snow), she finds no peace in his puritanical values, one day, her encounter with her cousin hitherto she has never met before, Felix Young (Woodward), sows the romantic seeds in both hearts.
Felix and his elder sister Eugenia (Remick), hailed from Europe, now seek their uncle Mr. Wentworth’s help to settle down in the New World, Felix is of an artistic disposition and Eugenia, has earned the title of a baroness thanks to the marriage to a German prince, but now that is in the middle of an annulment, which leaves her in a rather awkward situation with only a very modest allowance.
Unsurprisingly Eugenia is looking for a new husband prospect, and she lays her eyes on Mr. Robert Acton (Ellis), the Wentworths’ relative from another family line, who apparently is enchanted by Eugenia’s wits, grace and sophistication, but the continental/Victorian divide slowly encroaches his feelings for her, especially after an incident that he realizes fibbing is not above her amusement, which gives him pause for thought.
Meantime Gertrude and Felix’s romance meets little resistance after they successfully canalize Mr. Brand’s feelings to Charlotte, who is indeed a fungible replacement, with the benefit of clergy, even broke, Felix manages to wrest the approbation from Mr. Wentworth, who doesn’t entirely see eye to eye with him. For what is worth, the film (much obliged to Jhabvala’s script, kept mostly prosaic and intelligible) explicitly astutely casts light on the sexist double standard that has been long prevailing, and the patriarchal, stuffy ethos that is ingrained in a country’s bloodline.
Against all odds, a 44-year-old Remick acquits herself to be an apt leading lady in a prestigious production, although her film role runs dry quickly afterward, her Eugenia is so adept in playing the game of pulling and pushing of verbal connotations, but also true to her moods and inclinations, while balancing propriety and tact with brio, her merits are woefully missed out by those who are blinded by bias and preconceptions; then there is starlet Eichhorn, in her breakout year, inhabits a nervy character like Gertrude with fire in the belly, even up to a point of utter bluntness, her liberation is worth celebration but are we so sure that her union is a good match?
The weak link in indeed, lies in the male persuasion, without the interpretation of a virtuoso, all the male characters in the film look uniformly unprepossessing and uninteresting, some of them are rather too dour or self-serious to not evoke displeasure, quite a waste against the production’s quaint and lyrical charm steeped in New England’s natural scenery and Judy Moorcroft’s period-specific wardrobe magnificence, all under Ivory’s elegant if understated stewardship.
referential entries: Ivory’s QUARTET (1981, 6.2/10); Martin Scorsese’s THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993, 7.9/10); Jane Campion’s THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY (1996, 7.4/10).
