Film review: 'The Proposition'
While the premise sounds ripe -- a privileged '30s-era feminist writer pays a young man to sire her child, with the blessing of her sterile husband -- "The Proposition" (formerly "Shakespeare's Sister") is a ponderous slab of heavy-handed poetic justice dished out by unsympathetic characters in borrowed Merchant-Ivory attire.
Receiving its world premiere at the recent Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the picture will be a doubtful boxoffice proposition for PolyGram despite a high-caliber cast fronted by Kenneth Branagh, Madeleine Stowe and William Hurt.
Stowe is very much in her period element as Eleanor Barrett, the emancipated scribe in question who seeks guidance from the writings of Virginia Woolf as well as a child from her devoted, wealthy husband Arthur (hurt). When it's learned that he can't deliver the goods, the couple hires Roger Martin Neil Patrick Harris), a young, hesitant surrogate, to do the honors.
But when Eleanor becomes pregnant, said stud goes from awkward to arrogant to downright obsessed, threatening to scandalize the staid Beacon Hill establishment by revealing their little business arrangement.
Not wanting to reveal too much more, suffice it to say someone makes sure Martin goes away permanently, while the new Catholic priest (Branagh) mysteriously ducks the couple's repeated dinner invitations.
Screenwriter Rick Ramage lays the intrigue and malice on pretty thick, while director Lesli Linka Glatter ("Now and Then") gives everything the same claustrophobic, purposeful weight. Given the heady subject matter, a little irony would have been most helpful. Add the wrap-around, redundant narration (most likely added after the fact), and the picture goes from merely unsuccessful to quite irritating.
Try as they might to inject some warm-blooded humanity into their mopey, unappealing characters, the cast faces an impossible task. Even Blythe Danner, as the Barretts' dedicated secretary and confidante, can't do much to conceal the fact that her character is virtually a carbon copy of "Rebecca"'s Mrs. Danvers.
The same goes for the technical aspects, which while respectable have a hollow, imitative feel, from Peter Sova's meaningful camerawork to composer Stephen Endelman's string-pulling strings.
THE PROPOSITION
PolyGram Films
An Interscope Communications production
A Lesli Linka Glatter film
Director: Lesli Linka Glatter
Producers: Ted Field, Diane Nabatoff, Scott Kroopf
Screenwriter: Rick Ramage
Executive producer: Lata Ryan
Director of photography: Peter Sova
Production designer: David Brisbin
Editor: Jacqueline Cambas
Costume designer: Anna Sheppard
Music: Stephen Endelman
Color/stereo
Cast:
Father Michael McKinnon: Kenneth Branagh
Arthur Barrett: William Hurt
Eleanor Barrett: Madeleine Stowe
Syril Danning: Blythe Danner
Hannibal Thurman: Robert Loggia
Roger Martin: Neil Patrick Harris
Father Dryer: Josef Sommer
Running time -- 114 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Receiving its world premiere at the recent Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the picture will be a doubtful boxoffice proposition for PolyGram despite a high-caliber cast fronted by Kenneth Branagh, Madeleine Stowe and William Hurt.
Stowe is very much in her period element as Eleanor Barrett, the emancipated scribe in question who seeks guidance from the writings of Virginia Woolf as well as a child from her devoted, wealthy husband Arthur (hurt). When it's learned that he can't deliver the goods, the couple hires Roger Martin Neil Patrick Harris), a young, hesitant surrogate, to do the honors.
But when Eleanor becomes pregnant, said stud goes from awkward to arrogant to downright obsessed, threatening to scandalize the staid Beacon Hill establishment by revealing their little business arrangement.
Not wanting to reveal too much more, suffice it to say someone makes sure Martin goes away permanently, while the new Catholic priest (Branagh) mysteriously ducks the couple's repeated dinner invitations.
Screenwriter Rick Ramage lays the intrigue and malice on pretty thick, while director Lesli Linka Glatter ("Now and Then") gives everything the same claustrophobic, purposeful weight. Given the heady subject matter, a little irony would have been most helpful. Add the wrap-around, redundant narration (most likely added after the fact), and the picture goes from merely unsuccessful to quite irritating.
Try as they might to inject some warm-blooded humanity into their mopey, unappealing characters, the cast faces an impossible task. Even Blythe Danner, as the Barretts' dedicated secretary and confidante, can't do much to conceal the fact that her character is virtually a carbon copy of "Rebecca"'s Mrs. Danvers.
The same goes for the technical aspects, which while respectable have a hollow, imitative feel, from Peter Sova's meaningful camerawork to composer Stephen Endelman's string-pulling strings.
THE PROPOSITION
PolyGram Films
An Interscope Communications production
A Lesli Linka Glatter film
Director: Lesli Linka Glatter
Producers: Ted Field, Diane Nabatoff, Scott Kroopf
Screenwriter: Rick Ramage
Executive producer: Lata Ryan
Director of photography: Peter Sova
Production designer: David Brisbin
Editor: Jacqueline Cambas
Costume designer: Anna Sheppard
Music: Stephen Endelman
Color/stereo
Cast:
Father Michael McKinnon: Kenneth Branagh
Arthur Barrett: William Hurt
Eleanor Barrett: Madeleine Stowe
Syril Danning: Blythe Danner
Hannibal Thurman: Robert Loggia
Roger Martin: Neil Patrick Harris
Father Dryer: Josef Sommer
Running time -- 114 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/18/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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