It took a lot of guts for multi-hyphenate Gehan Cooray, director Michael Philip and producer Jo Marr to transform a 1930s play by George Bernard Shaw into such a fresh and topical 21st century feature film, covering everything from Same Sex Marriage to Asexuality. Whereas Shaw's original play 'The Millionairess' featured a protagonist whose self-worth was derived entirely from her money, the title character in 'The Billionaire' (portrayed with exceeding aplomb by Gehan) is as proud of his "chastity and purity", adding a spiritual component to what was a materialistic creation.
Those who don't get the movie seem to be entirely ignorant of the fact that this is a "Comedy of Manners". It is so crucial that people who post reviews on sites like this educate themselves on genre and style. I was absolutely amazed at the ease and fluency with which the copious amounts of dialogue in this script was delivered by all the actors.
Randy Wayne, who portrays the Billionaire's primary love interest, did a superb job with a Mid-Atlantic accent that would have sounded just as stellar in a Classic Hollywood film made between the 1930s and the 1950s. Jordan Belfi who portrayed the Lawyer struck a very admirable balance between deadpan humor and a very solid, at times quite earnest interpretation of the character which can easily be enacted in a more farcical way.
I read a Hollywood Digest review of the film that compared Gehan Cooray's performance to Norma Shearer, who won the Best Actress Oscar in 1930 for 'The Divorcee'. That more Classical style of acting may not necessarily be in vogue right now, but it is the only way to portray the protagonist here who clings on to very Old World Sensibilities, and eschews the more common and pedestrian ways of the modern world. I was also reminded of Bette Davis when I watched Gehan's performance.
No wonder this film was eligible for both Oscar and Golden Globe Nominations. There is a great interview that Patricia Danaher, a juror of the Golden Globe Awards, did with Gehan Cooray which gives me hope that even in a place as commercial as present day Hollywood, the masterworks of writers like Shaw can still be appreciated when adapted as successfully as Cooray adapted this.
