mmmm... Emma Thompson...

...or so ran my thoughts in anticipation of CARRINGTON, Emma's latest starring role. The movie is based on the true story of Dora Carrington, an English painter, and the men in her life, especially Lytton Strachey, an English writer. Emma plays Carrington, of course. Lytton is played by Jonathan Pryce (best recognized as the guy in those Lexus commercials.)

Interstitial titles divide the movie into six parts, each title indicating a range of years (the entire story takes place between 1915 and 1932), and the man or locale of Carrington's life at that time. It's nice that they provided these references, because they provide a framework of simplicity as the relationships between the characters grow unspeakably complex.

How complex? For starters, we have Carrington, who dresses androngynously and wishes she'd been born a boy. She's seeing a fellow painter, but ends up falling in love with Lytton, who is a bisexual with stronger leanings toward men than women. Lytton falls for other men, who in turn fall for Carrington. And Carrington turns out to be handy at acquiring lovers by her own means. Marriages are made, then wrecked, then glued together. Careers are dashed, friendships ruined, then repatched. Throughout the square dance of relationships, Carrington's devotion to Lytton remains the sole constant.

Unfortunately, this isn't as exciting a story as it starts out to be. Things progress. An episode. A confrontation. A good day. A bad day. Years slip by... There is a lot of sex, more of it implied than seen. Given the amount of it, one might call this movie "Emma Does England." But you know what they say about English lovers.

CARRINGTON relies a great deal on small gestures and physical movements to convey meaning. The formation of emotions is less stated than implied through their consequences. We are never inside the head of any character. Rather, we view a montage of fly-on-the-wall vingiettes. A typical scene: Fade in. Carrington is writing a letter at a desk (the addresssee and content is unknown). She stops and asks Lytton, "How do you spell 'intangible?'" Lytton replies, "I-N-T, A-N-G, I-B-L-E." Fade out, fade in next scene. The meaning conveyed, naturally, is Carrington's despair at ever touching Lytton the way he has touched her.

While all this makes for a subtle and well-crafted film, it doesn't readily engage the emotions.

CARRINGTON is not a Merchant-Ivory production (it is the directorial debut of Christopher Hampton, writer of DANGEROUS LIASIONS). But it definitely has that Merchant-Ivory feel to it. Period costumes, cocktail parties, houses that have names, beautiful countryside. The crowd that runs about in the movie is Bohemian, so the wit is sharp but the manners more relaxed than in, say, HOWARDS END or REMAINS OF THE DAY. You might imagine CARRINGTON as the mid-point in a morph between HOWARDS END and HENRY AND JUNE.

Speaking of HOWARDS END, Joseph Bennett, who played Leonard Bast in that movie, has a part in this movie as one of Carrington's lovers.

I also wanted to note that CARRINGTON's score is by Michael Nyman. I really like Nyman's soundtrack work, but I was a little disappointed with this one. It's nice, but most of it is material rehashed from his String Quartet No. 3. (which I have listened to three times while writing this review).

Overall, CARRINGTON is a well made film with solid performances. I just wish it had used its near 2 1/2 hours to get closer to my heart.

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