Search - A Good Woman on DVD

Milena Vukotic - Contessa Lucchino
Diana Hardcastle - Lady Plymdale
Roger Hammond - Cecil
Jane How - Mrs. Stutfield
John Standing - Dumby
Giorgia Massetti - Allessandra
Camilla Bertocci - Stella's Maid 2
Arianna Mansi - Stella's Maid 1
Daniela Stanga - Dress Shop Owner
Carolina Levi - Dress Shop Salesgirl
Filippo Santoro - Old Man
Valentina D'uva - Giuseppina, Glove Shop Girl
Antonio Barbaro - Paulo
Michael Stromme - Hotel Desk Clerk
Shara Orano - Francesca
Augusto Zucchi - Antique Shop Keeper
Bruce McGuire - Waiter Joe
Nichola Aigner - Mrs. Gowper

I took a script writing course at the local college for amusement. I discovered there, that 'good scripts' have a 'protagonist', the hero, or 'good guy with whom we identify; and an 'antagonist', the bad guy. More often than not, the bad guy is a charicature of pure evil..someone we all love to hate. Moreover, a 'good script, has the bad guy, and his evil ways, prevail for, like, 99% of the movie..and a final victory over evil in the last few seconds of the film, providing us with something akin to emotional release and satisfaction....like an orgasm perhaps..maybe the reason they call it "the climax' of the film.
The production and the acting is superb in this movie. For that, I give it an "A". But there , unfortunately, is a glaring and fatal flaw...it is penned by the notorious libertine, Oscar Wilde of the UK. The fatal flaw is that his tales serve as a platform for him to 'preach' as it were - his particular brand of amoral behaviour. The script is absolutely chock full of the poorest advice ever proffered to the unsuspecting public at large. The premise of the story involves a high priced 'call girl'...the kind we read about in the press that torpedoed, for instance Elliott Spitzer, attorney general of New York, who was caught frequenting a similar high priced call girl. Both career and marriage went down in flames, and humiliating reportage in the national press which feeds upon prurience like this...and makes a LOT of dough in the process....which, frankly speaking, is another form of 'prostitution' = the selling of newspapers by resorting to pandering to the gossip mongers of the world, which exist in overwhelming numbers, sadly. There are more important things to consider...like 30% interest charged for your 'buy now, pay later plan at lens crafts people. But no...we'd much rather indulge ourselves in the dirt on other people's lives.
Gossip mongers abound in this film and are prominently featured. The reputation of Helen Hunt, playing the prostitute becomes so bad, that she can no longer be seen in public. What makes this ( cough ) literature go down in flames is the insistence on lines like "It takes a life of practice to live a life without regret"...in other words, Helen Hunt's character is presented to us as a 'model' of good behaviour...hence 'the good woman'. She is not a good woman. Infidelity is explained by a friend and confidant of the wronged young naive wife, played by Scarlett Johansson = that infidelity is "normal" and to be expected in life...the trick is: "... to not let it get to you...just go shopping" is the lame and monumentally stupid advice. There is a glib and insipid 'just get used to it' light hearted foolishness/clever reparte theme running through the entire script. The dialogue is presented to us as "cute, and charming"....and it is in point of fact sinister and evil all by itself. Infidelity is NOT normal. it wrecks lives. It exhausts bank accounts...it robs, kills, and destroys.
The pure evil in this story is the author himself. A crack is made about the U.S. by the way ( the story takes place among the filthy rich during the Great Depression, whiling away the economic disasters affecting the world in opulent Italy...the crack is "America is the only country we know that went from Barabarism to Decadence without bothering to create a Civilization in between"....This is a profoundly insulting, stupid movie. America has and is developing a civilization....and accomplishing it in part by thoroughly rejecting virtually everything Great Britain stands for - which includes their demigod Darwin. "Since life is an accidental confluence of chemicals, it logically means, there is no such thing as right or wrong"....this is Great Britain; and no one represents it more clearly and distinctly than Oscar Wilde.

I loved this movie, I really did. It surprised me by how great it was, and I love when that happens. There is a surprise twist in the movie that kept me happily occupied.