12/05/97
MOVIE REVIEW: The Wings of the Dove
'Wings of the Dove' soars

By MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal-Bulletin Arts Writer

**** (out of five)
Starring Helena Bonham Carter, Linus Roache, Alison Elliott, Charlotte Rampling, Elizabeth McGovern, Michael Gambon, Alex Jennings. A Miramax Films release written by Hossein Amini, inspired by the novel by Henry James, directed by Iain Softley. At the Avon Cinema. Rated R, contains sex, nudity. Running time: 102 minutes.

Last year the big end-of-the-year romantic drama that had everyone pulling out their handkerchiefs was The English Patient.

This year it's sure to be The Wings of the Dove, in which a romantic triangle that's tainted by greed upsets the lives of all involved.

Based on a Henry James novel that was published in 1902 (changed for the film to 1910), it's set in London and Venice, the latter turned into a dreamily magical place of color and light.

Taking place in a time of changing values, The Wings of the Dove explores everything from class snobbery to class rivalry to the changing views women had of themselves to the psychological underpinnings of love. It sounds heavy, but it's not at all. The moral here is that you never know where the heart will lead, especially if you start monkeying around with romance.

Kate Croy (Helena Bonham Carter) wants passion on her own terms, no matter the cost. But she also finds that she wants the comforts money can buy. These disparate feelings set up the inner churnings of her increasing desperation.

It's a big problem for Kate, who has been plucked from the London slums by her wealthy social-arbiter Aunt Maude (Charlotte Rampling). Kate is bored by society and continues to secretly meet her old love, a poor journalist with the unfortunate name of Merton Densher (Linus Roache) who lives in a cramped flat. They meet in subway stations, in parks. At least until Maude uses her spies to discover where Kate has been disappearing to.

Not only does she threaten to cut Kate off from all her money if she continues the romance that Maude feels is beneath the family -- something that Kate isn't all that much concerned about at first -- but Maude also threatens to cut off the stipend she pays to Kate's opium-addicted father. Kate does care about that.

Kate, discovering that she can no longer have her cake and eat it, too, breaks off with Merton. At least until a fabulously wealthy American named Millie Theale (Alison Elliott) enters the picture and becomes infatuated with Merton when she and Kate come upon him at a party.

"Why, she could be the queen of America, if they had a queen," says Lord Mark (Alex Jennings), who has already set his sights on winning Millie's hand so he can pay for the upkeep on his palatial digs.

Kate hasn't let Millie's increasingly obvious feelings toward Merton slip by unnoticed. But it's not mere jealousy that she's concerned about. Kate sees an opportunity to use Millie's feelings to get herself out from under Maude's thumb and to have Merton for herself in a scheme that begins to hatch when the three young people take off to see the splendors of Venice.

Of course, the best-laid plans don't always go according to one's wishes. Not when one is toying with two other hearts.

A tour de force for Carter

More said about the plot of The Wings of the Dove would clip its wings and spoil its many surprises as the characters maneuver their way through a series of romantic intrigues. Director Iain Softley has set it up like a chess match as Kate tries to worm her way around both her lover and Millie, who thinks of her as a friend.

It's a tour de force for Carter, who manages to change throughout the film, something that must have been a welcome relief in these days of one-dimensional roles.

At first she's entirely sympathetic -- a rebellious spirit who wants to become her own person and rails against the restrictions of Britain's tightly wound class society. We empathize with her romantic quandary, yet begin to see the glimmers of callousness as Kate breaks off with Merton in favor of creature comfort.

Later, as she hatches her schemes, she becomes cold and brittle, and much more unsympathetic as she stolidly battles for her piece of the pie. Yet she's not completely evil, because so many of her problems have been foisted upon her by outside conditions and the class system.

Carter's is a riveting performance that holds The Wings of the Dove together, even as she becomes less important in the foreground when the scene shifts to Venice. But her behind-the-scenes maneuverings keep the plot percolating and lead to the moment when many viewers are sure to reach for their handkerchiefs.

A beautifully staged film

Equally complex is Roache's take on Merton, a strong-willed and equality-minded young man of great sensitivity who is brokenhearted when Kate ends their relationship. But later, even he is tempted by the thoughts of easy money, not suspecting that as he succumbs to Kate's love schemes, his heart may have different ideas.

Roache makes Merton a goodhearted, sincere and honest man who is swayed -- and in more than one direction -- by love.

Elliott's Millie is as warm and sunny as a summer afternoon in a gondola. She buoys the film and wins our hearts. There are no ulterior motives with Millie. She is the film's pure soul, although it takes a while for some of the other characters to realize that.

Good, too, in the small role of Millie's traveling companion and confidante, is Elizabeth McGovern, who always seems to know more than she's letting on.

Softley has staged the film beautifully, taking us from London's gilded ballrooms to its seedy bars and opium dens to the magnificent antiquities of Venice. One of the most beautiful sequences is set at an outdoor masked carnival in the watery city, something that makes you want to get right on a plane.