A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: The Winslow Boy

Date Viewed: 5/30/99

Details:

Guy Edwards

Nigel Hawthorne

Gemma Jones

Jeremy Northam

Matthew Pidgeon

Rebecca Pidgeon

Colin Stinton

Screenplay written and directed by: David Mamet

Score: +

The Review: A period drama in late Edwardian England, just before the Great War.

When the youngest son (Guy Edwards) of an upper middle class English family is accused of theft and sent down (sacked) from the school he is attending, just before Christmas, the family rallies around the embarrassed and self-proclaimed innocent. His father Arthur (an excellent and understated performance by Nigel Hawthorne) and elder sister Catherine (assertive, opinionated, suffragette: Rebecca Pidgeon, whose flashing brown eyes fit the role perfectly) mount a campaign in his defense, and rapidly polarize society. The complication comes from the son's attending a naval academy, thus his alleged infraction falls under military law and has proceeded without trial. The problem is that one cannot sue the Crown or the Crown's agents (to request a trial) without permission, and getting permission is disrupting the normal functions of the government. The cost of the defense and public outcry ("Let right be done.") ripples through the family; hardships and fractured relationships become inevitable.

As befits the problem and the son's defense, lawyers abound -- both Colin Stinton as the long-time friend and erstwhile suitor to Rebecca Pidgeon's Catherine, and Jeremy Northam as the snooty Sir Robert Morton ("Easy to do justice; hard to do right."). Even Catherine, who takes the role of family legal technician in an age where ladies seem relegated only to the balcony of court, seems to have a future in the law.

Nigel Hawthorne's Arthur is wonderful: quiet, forceful, frail, persistent, complex; the focal point of the family. Rebecca Pidgeon's Catherine is fascinating: outspoken but accepted by the family, self-deprecating with wry humor; the romantic center, and the focus of the screenplay. On screen between Catherine and Northam's Morton, there is just the right balance between tension and attraction; they have a subtle chemistry that gives rise to the fleeting thought, "what next?!"

This is a remake of the 1948 film by Anthony Asquith. Both were based on the 1942 play by Terence Rattigan, which itself is taken from the actual 1912 case. This production (a late release from 1998) has both a fine ensemble cast (including supporting roles of Gemma Jones as the mother, and Matthew Pidgeon as the middle brother Dickie) and fine acting.

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