Oscar Wilde was known for his clever and witty plays. Mrs. Windermere's Fan is no exception, and A Good Woman, is a worthy cinematic adaptation.
The year is 1930. Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt) is an American seductress who lives lavishly through the many rich and powerful men in New York. The wives soon catch on, and the infamous Mrs. Erlynne is battered with a bad reputation and debts. She turns her attention to a rich, young American couple, the Windermeres. She treks all the way to the coast of Italy, where the young couple currently resides, and is determined to start anew using her charm and sensuality.
Within a short time, she befriends the dashing Robert Windermere (Mark Umbers), who is at once taken by her mature sophistication. Robert starts to have secret meetings with Mrs. Erlynne and pays her large sums of money behind his wife’s back. Meanwhile, Meg Windermere (Scarlett Johansson) meets handsome Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore), the confirmed bachelor who immediately falls under the spell of beautiful and innocent Meg. Lord Darlington, knowing Robert Windermere’s secret, aggressively pursues Meg, but she is totally in love with her husband and refuses to oblige. Meanwhile, Tuppy (Tom Wilkinson) is drawn to Mrs. Erlynne, a woman so unlike all the women he has ever met (or divorced). The women in town start to gossip, thinking they know more than they actually do. Soon Mrs. Erlynne’s past catches up with her, and Meg begins to suspect her husband is having an affair with Mrs. Erlynne, whose secret is bigger and deeper than Meg realizes.
Hunt (Empire Falls) is in great form here, looking older but very sexy. She has a difficult job of playing a woman who is not entirely sympathetic and trustworthy, even though the character redeems herself at the end. Hunt’s luminous performance is both subtle and showy at the same time. Johansson (Match Point) again plays a young woman caught between lies and deceits around her. She does a good job, though it’s far from being her best performance.
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