The Golden Bowl

2000
12
2h 10m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A man marries an heiress for her money even though he is actually in love with her friend.A man marries an heiress for her money even though he is actually in love with her friend.A man marries an heiress for her money even though he is actually in love with her friend.

Director
- James Ivory
Writers
- Henry James
- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.9/10

4.7K

YOUR RATING

Director
- James Ivory
Writers
- Henry James
- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination

Trivia
According to costume designer John Bright, Cosprop provided lace and sequined dresses for the principal actresses: 28 outfits for Uma Thurman, 15 for Anjelica Huston and 20 for Kate Beckinsale.

Goofs
When the merchant delivers the golden bowl to Charlotte, he examines two pictures on the table behind the sofa. As he sets them down, the one on the right (seen from behind it) is placed so that it scrunches up the cloth runner. After Charlotte arrives, and he is explaining the coincidence of the subject couple asking about the bowl, the picture is seen again (from the front) and the cloth runner is smooth, as if recently ironed.

Quotes
Amerigo: What is it you want from me?
Maggie: I want a happiness without a hole in it! I want the bowl without the crack!

Crazy credits
grateful thanks to Lord Tollemache and family; Frances, Duchess of Rutland; The Duke of Northumberland

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: Driven/The Golden Bowl/61*/One Night at McCool's/The Luzhin Defence (2001)

Soundtracks
Moonstruck
Words and Music by Lionel Monckton
Performed by Madeleine Potter (uncredited) and Robin Hart (uncredited)

User reviews73

Review

Featured review

6/10

Long, Drawn Out Social Criticism Amidst Beautiful Costumes

"The Golden Bowl" felt more like recent Edith Wharton adaptations like "Age of Innocence" and "House of Mirth" than its Henry James provenance, because the focus is more on the social criticism of a society that forces the impecunious upper class into marriage with pecunious upstarts than the individual faults of people this hypocritical society produces.

But maybe my mind wandered as this was a bit over-long as I seemed to have missed some crucial epiphany when characters changed their relationships where they find true love a manipulable characteristic -- with the audience responding with sharp intakes of breath.

I was surprised how good Uma Thurman was in a costume drama as I had thought of her only as a modernist, while I thought Nick Nolte far too subdued to be a robber baron.

The costumes and settings were gorgeous.

The audience was typical Merchant/Ivory fans -- the woman on my right chastised me during the opening credits for eating my popcorn too loudly, while the guy on my left was snoring almost as soon as the movie started.

(originally written 5/13/2001)