‘Washington Square’ A Superb Adaptation Chicago Tribune October 10, 1997 by Michael Wilmington Tribune Movie Critic Catherine Sloper of "Washington Square" may be one of the most luckless of literary heroines, but the splendid new movie of Henry James' classic short novel pours down radiant light and sympathy on all her misfortunes. Plain and shy, despised since birth by her wealthy and cold New York physician father, cursed with painful self-consciousness and awkwardness, mocked behind her back by acquaintances, kept from the man she loves by her father's suspicions that her suitors are fortune-hunters, Catherine has been weighed down with insult and injury by her creator James. Yet bad as Catherine's lot may be, the film that records it is an occasion for joy: one of the year's finest movies. Directed by the master Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, it is a beautifully designed and articulated work. Brimming with cinematic energy and packed with superb players and performances - with Catherine herself movingly portrayed by that wonderful actress, Jennifer Jason Leigh - it's a model of cinematic taste, imagination and intelligence, superior not only to every other Henry movie adaptation I've seenn (including William Wyler’s excellent, Oscar- winning 1949 film "The Heiress," also taken from "Washington Square") but also to most of the recent flood of E.M. Forster and Jane Austen as well. In making this film, director Holland and her scriptwriter (Carol Doyle) have worked their way to the heart of James' story, to his bleak revelations about American class and conscience, the chains of family, romance among the rich. And together with her brilliant core cast - Leigh, Albert Finney as Dr. Sloper, Ben Chaplin as enigmatic suitor Morris Townsend and Maggie Smith as fluttery matchmaker Aunt Lavinia Penniman - Holland ("Angry Harvest," "Europa, Europa") has brought it dazzlingly to life. James wrote "Washington Square" in 1881, six years after his permanent departure from America for Europe. It's simple on the surface, complex and devastating below: a tale of quiet betrayals and the death of the heart. The heroine Catherine is an introverted social misfit, lost in the polite whirl of 19th Century fashionable lower Manhattan: a lonely girl who finds herself pursued by Morris, a seductively handsome and well-spoken but impoverished family acquaintance. Catherine is amazed, then quietly ravished. Her aunt and companion, Lavinia, is delighted. But Catherine's domineering father, Dr. Sloper, is convinced Morris is a cad and fortune hunter - largely because he regards his own daughter as so unattractive and ill-favored he can't conceive of anyone falling in love with any part of her but her inheritance. So Catherine, a young woman initially idolatrous of her tyrannical father, is gradually forced into revolt against him, spurred by Morris' devoted attentions and the hopelessly romantic Aunt Lavinia. Catherine, starved for affection, blooms under the courtship. But, as the two women grow more determined, so does Dr. Sloper. Many literary or film heroines suffer forced separation from their lovers. But Catherind has a worse problem. Torn between her handsome suitor and gruff father, she has to face the possibility that she is less the subject of their battle than her own fortune. And though we can see into Catherine's as clearly as into a still and sunlit pool, the hearts of her men are not so easily uncovered. It is part of James' genius that when these revelations finally come, they are utterly convincing. Great works of literature don't necessarily translate well to movies. And even if they've worked well on one occasion (as with "The Heiress"), cinematic lightning may not strike twice. But fortune has smiled on Holland's "Washington Square." James scholars may quibble over the film's occasional liberties (scholars always do). But they shouldn't. Holland, whose previous work never suggested any affinity with James' well-bred, high-caste world, has found a key to dramatizing his work that eluded James himself (in his brief, doomed playwriting career) and most other filmmakers, including James Ivory ("The Europeans" and "The Bostonians") and Jane Campion, with last year's brilliant but icy "The Portrait of a Lady." Those other movies seem to take many of their visual cues from James' upper-class backgrounds and his famously austere and convoluted literary style. The moviemakers try to turn James' outer world into the image of his sensibility, instead of placing his sensibility within a larger and more expansive world - which is what Holland does. Her "Washington Square" is brimming with life and decor, overflowing with characters, packed with movement and tracking shots. It's so lively and energetic that we immediately see the crucial contrast between Catherine and her surroundings, Dr. Sloper and his daughter, Morris and the upper-class milieu of his dreams. That larger social backdrop (with the old Washington Square vividly re- created in Baltimore's Union Square) lets the actors deftly bring out the comic sides of their roles as well as the darker tones. The most obvious beneficiary is Maggie Smith, who gets to turn Aunt Lavinia into a comic tour de force, a grand busybody, oozing with awful good intentions. And it sharpens the duel between Finney's Dr. Sloper and Chaplin's Morris. As for Catherine, a great role has found another great actress. Leigh, on a temporary holiday from the "nuts and sluts" gallery of her recent roles, has the dedication, skill and lack of vanity to make this ultimate wallflower real. In her opening scenes, we can practically feel her discomfort and desperation in public, her flayed alienation. But she also gives Catherine a finer, warmer sensibility. "The Heiress" and Olivia De Havilland, good as they were, turned Catherine into something of an avenging angel. Leigh restores her heart, sadness and dignity. It's a beautiful piece of work, With an effective last scene (not as chilling as the denouement of "The Heiress," but more moving and convincing). In her European career, especially in the films she made with Poland's Andrzej Wajda, Agnieszka Holland proved herself a formidable intellect and instinctive dramatist. Here, after the partial triumphs or missteps of "The Secret Garden" and "Total Eclipse," she has found her English language voice. With its marvelous cast, script and brilliant director, this "Washington Square" is everything a film adaptation of a classic book should be: faithful (but not slavishly so), literate and visual, profound and engaging. And while the film may not sensuously satisfy a craving for romance (like poor Lavinia's), it gives us something more: a deep and shattering look into hearts frozen and hearts aflame.