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A Good Woman Details

2004 DVD Certificate PG.gif
  • Rated:
  • 60
  • from 11,442 members

Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson fight over the same rich young man in this sumptuously elegant and loose adaptation of Oscar Wilde's LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN. The setting for the action is moved from Victorian England's parlors to Italy's gorgeous Amalfi coast in the early 1930's. A vacationing American couple, the Windermeres (.. Read more

Starring Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Campbell Moore
Director Mike Barker
Genres Comedy, Drama, Romance

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A Good Woman

Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson fight over the same rich young man in this sumptuously elegant and loose adaptation of Oscar Wilde's LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN. The setting for the action is moved from Victorian England's parlors to Italy's gorgeous Amalfi coast in the early 1930's. A vacationing American couple, the Windermeres (Johansson and Mark Umbers), meet scandal when caught up in a web of expatriate British slander after Mr. Windermere apparently starts having an affair with the notorious gold-digger, Mrs. Erlynne (Hunt). Meanwhile, the debauched Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore) takes it upon himself to comfort the tearful and lovely Mrs. Windermere, and Tuppy (Tom Wilkinson), an older member of the British circle, sees there's a sweet woman being hurt by all the malicious gossip and falls for Mrs. Erlynne himself. The gossip may be malicious, but no one writes it as well as Wilde, and here his famed quips--many flown in from other plays--flourish in wild abundance. Johansson is a knockout, and there are lots of elegant costumes and intricately decorated Italian villas, all captured in an enticingly dusky cinematographic style. Performances vary in stylistic approach, with Wilkinson carrying the day as the well-intentioned, self-effacing Tuppy, the vulnerable human center of this dizzying ring of barbed witticisms and elegant subterfuge.

Starring Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Mark Umbers
Director Mike Barker
Studio PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 29 mins
Certificate DVD Certificate PG.gif
Genres Comedy, Drama, Romance
Language English
Released DVD: 20 Feb 2006
Production year: 2004
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (5) of A Good Woman

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  • 3 stars out of 5

    While director Gough Lewis refused to reveal on screen that he slept with his subject during the making of Sex: the Annabel Chong Story, Dennis O'Rourke makes an open secret of his physical liaison with Thai prostitute Yaowalak Chonchanakun in this relentlessly uncomfortable pseudo-documentary. Shot over nine months on Super 8, the action alternates between interviews with the often exhausted (or possibly drug-addled) girl and discreetly filmed footage of the Bangkok sex industry in action. Any insights O'Rourke gains about the nature of love are buried beneath his sense of guilt at exploiting Yaowalak and acquiescing in the system that enslaves her.

    • Radio Times
  • Good looking but miscast and misguided updating of an Oscar Wilde play, in which his wit goes for nothing.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
  • Most helpful member's review of A Good Woman

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  • 50 out of 51 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    A sweet movie

    Charming adaptation of the Oscar Wilde play. Set in the 1930's, a mature woman (played by Helen Hunt) has become the talk of the town, with her 'talent' for entertaining wealthy, married men. Leaving it all behind, she sails to the Amalfi Coast (Italy) where the Windermeres resides. She has decided to seduce the husband. The man is wealthy, and with his young wife (Scarlett Johansson), forms the most glamorous couple in town. But deception is not what it seems, and this is ultimately, the story of surprising loyalty.

      • A customer from London
  • Most recent members' review of A Good Woman

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  • 1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    A Good Woman

    Very enjoyable version of Oscar Wilde's 'Lady Windermere's Fan'. But the title of the film is silly, and does not convey the film at all. It was great to hear all those brilliant and witty Oscar Wilde one-liners, superbly delivered by a great cast. Beautifully filmed in Italy, and the dresses were gorgeous.

    Highly recommended film.

      • Rebel from Wolverhampton
  • News and features

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    The Women

    Then She Found Me

    • 15 Sep 2008

    Kudos to Helen Hunt. Ten years ago she had the most popular sitcom on US TV (Mad About You) and won an Oscar for serving Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets. But after a little flurry of movies around the millennium (including Dr T and the Women and What Women Want) she seemed to shrink from view. There was A Good Woman, a small part in Emilio Estevez’s Bobby, and the TV movie Empire Falls, but that’s all we’ve seen of her in the last six years. Now we know why. It’s... Read more

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Rating breakdown

11,442 Member ratings
  • 100
402
  • 90
525
  • 80
1,165
  • 70
1,735
  • 60
2,619
  • 50
1,691
  • 40
1,271
  • 30
868
  • 20
729
  • 10
437

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    • A Good Woman
      Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson fight over the same rich young man in this sumptuously elegant and loose adaptation of Oscar Wilde's LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN. The setting for the action is moved from Victorian England's parlors to Italy's gorgeous Amalfi coast in the early 1930's. A vacationing ...