******
- Verified Buyer
When you read the reviews of this film, reviewers who have read the book tend to rate the film lower and indicate that film does not measure up to the novel. However, I think it is only fair to review the film as a stand alone artistic production independent of the source novel, and under this condition the film is superb and highly disturbing. I found myself thinking about the film all the next day after I saw it, for it is dark social commentary on the human condition.Gillian Anderson plays Lily Bart, a cool socialite, seeking a rich husband among the New York City social upper class. The film follows Lily as she makes one mistake after another in judgment, all with consequences that begin to undermine her social position. Her vulnerability is based on her ambivalence and inaction when action is required. Lily had upper class parents who lost their fortune when she was 19. Now she lives with her Aunt Julia Peniston, and her cousin, Grace Julia Stepney.The most obvious ambiguity in her life is her love for the handsome lawyer, Lawrence Selden, who does not have the size fortune needed to attract and maintain Lily. She loves him and yet her vocation is to seek a wealthy husband, and Lawrence recognizes that this is her vocation, the goal toward which everyone in her family and social network directs her, and thus he does not push his affections upon her. They become a tragic pair of star-crossed lovers. Eric Stoltz does a great job playing Selden, a cool sophisticated socially accepted handsome man. Under normal circumstance he would be an excellent choice for a husband. However Lily has been bred to go after the highest prize, the wealthiest men in New York City.Lily has a small inheritance of $9,000 of which she has lost $8,000 in gambling debt which she must repay. She is friends with Gus and Judy Trenor and Judy is attempting to fix Lily up with New York's most wealthy men. But Lily loves Lawrence and she undermines each and every attempt to connect her to a rich husband and secure future. She confides to Gus Trenor that she is in debt and he offers to manage her inheritance. Lily sees Judy and Gus as her great friends and attends the opera with Gus when Judy is in the countryside. Gillian Anderson looks outstanding dressed in red for the Mozart opera but her conspicuous beauty in combination with her married escort begins to stimulate gossip and tales that reach the ears of her prudish rich aunt. Funds come in which Lily disburses, not realizing that these funds are not her dividends but the funds of Gus Trenor who finally reveals he wishes her to become his lover so as to repay the funds he has given her. She refuses Gus but the damage to her reputation has been done.This incident is minor stuff compared to the incredible double-cross that she endures from Bertha Dorset, who sets up Lily to cover her own marital indiscretion. Lily's cousin Grace uses every opportunity to influence the elderly Aunt Julia and when Julia dies the vast fortune goes to Grace with only enough funds going to Lily to pay her debts.Lily has the evidence to shame Bertha Dorset and give her husband George Dorset the grounds for a divorce but she does not use the tools she has been given. When the wealthy Jewish businessman Sim Rosedale offers her a strategy by which she can regain her status, she refuses to act, probably because Bertha has had an affair with Lawrence Selden and thus to act would also hurt Lawrence. When rich Aunt Julia dies, she leaves Lily $10,000, enough to cover her debts but no more. Lily never understood or appreciated her aunt's value system and what games would be required to inherit the vast fortune of $400,000 that is left to cousin Grace. Remember that $400,000 in 1907 is equal to about 400 million in 2008 dollars.The film tracks Lily's sad fall down the social ladder and the poor self destructive decisions that Lily has made come to bring about her downfall. It is an irony that she never really commits any of the indiscretions for which she is accused. Beautiful rich women in her class had to balance their vocation of acquiring wealth with their passion for men other than their husbands. Lily was not cut out for this strategy that Bertha Dorset has mastered so well. Laura Linney is excellent as the relentless Bertha who would sacrifice Lily to cover her own indiscretion.The end is sad and crushing. Lily has learned that life is difficult and that she is useless person if she no longer resides in the upper crust of wealthy society. She comes to see that she was just a cog in a giant social machine and when she dropped out of the machine, she was of little use to anyone.
