Review: Divorce, Le (2003)
Harvey S. Karten
Reviewed by: Harvey S. Karten
Grade: B+
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Directed by: James Ivory
Written by: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, novel by Diane Johnson
Cast: Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Stockard
Channing, Sam Waterston, Thierry Lhermitte, Leslie Caron,
Bebe Neuwirth, Matthew Modine
Screened at: Fox, NYC, 7/30/03
In Lerner and Loewe's musical "My Fair Lady" based on G.B.
Shaw's Pygmalion, Professor Henry Higgins, a stickler for
linguistic style, reminds us, "The French don't care what they do,
actually; so long as they pronounce it properly." Prescient
professor! Not everyone in the world thinks like us Americans,
nor do others speak like us as the French just now remind us
by rejecting the term "e-mail" just as we superciliously
suggested using the term "freedom fries" to refer to those
greasy potatoes that really have nothing much to do with France
anyway.
Cultural disparities are not only inconvenient to travelers but
often comical, a concept that James Ivory, inspired by Diane
Johnson's novel, "Le Divorce," milks for subtle humor, nuanced
criticism, and an absorbing (if overplotted) story. The French,
oppose not only what they consider America's so-called gung-
ho cowboy spirit in foreign policy but as we learn in this film
would quickly go along with Maggie Smith's observation in "Tea
with Mussolini" while watching Yanks at a nearby table eating a
hot fudge sundae, "The Americans vulgarize everything." At the
risk of being schematic, we note from "Le Divorce" that the
stereotypical American does not see eye to eye with the
stereotypical Frenchman in matters of sex, morality, food, and
fashion though the differences are more subtle than
pronounced.
To illustrate the thesis within a charming plot featuring
characters both charismatic and snooty, the Merchant Ivory
production goes with an ensemble exposition which, for
convenience sake, we can say centers on Isabel (Kate Hudson).
To assist her pregnant sister, Roxy (Naomi Watts) who is living
as an expatriate in Paris with her daughter and her French
husband, Charles-Henry (Melvil Poupaud). Her happiness is
shattered suddenly when her man without much ado simply
walks out on her to pursue an affair and appears stunned that
his wife bears an American stubbornness: she does not want to
give him a divorce.
For her part Isabel is not about to spend all her time with her
sister but rather takes a job editing papers of an American
author, Olivia Pace (Glenn Close), has a fling with Olivia's
young bohemian assistant (Romain Duris), eventually settling
into the essentially European role of mistress to a much older
diplomat, Edgar (Thierry Lhermitte). Charles-Henry's mother
and family matriarch, Mme. Suzanne de Persand (Leslie
Caron), moves to settle the marital problems in a rational way,
perturbed by the emotional turmoil expressed by Charles-
Henry's soon-to-be-divorced wife, Roxy.
If that sounds complicated (especially for a fluffy comedy),
there's a lot more going on, enough subplots to fill the screen
with two additional movies. For example, there's considerable
ado about the ownership of a painting which Roxy took from her
Santa Barbara home to Paris, a work which may or may not be
an authentic by a French master. The French have laid a claim
on behalf of the Louvre while the estranged couple differ on how
the proceeds should be divided. In addition, the parents of the
two young women (Sam Waterston and Stockard Channing),
together with the women's very American brother (Thomas
Lennon) have arrived in Paris following a half-hearted attempt
by the emotional Roxy to commit suicide while out of the blue,
an entertainment lawyer (Mathew Modine) is stalking his own
wife, furious that she is now carrying on an affair with Roxy's
estranged husband. Got it now?
Somehow all the strands save one involving the
entertainment lawyer are logically woven together in a film that
may suggest a loosely plotted Robert Altman drama but which
retains Kate Hudson's character as its center. While Americans
have been known to shack up with people other than their
spouses particularly if the significant other is rich the French
have institutionalized the tradition of wealthy men who keep
mistresses. The women are given introductory gifts (in the case
of the Isabel-Edgar affair, an $18,000 red alligator bag) and the
women are ultimately treated to expensive scarves such as the
one that Edgar, shopping in an exclusive store, tries on the
American writer he runs into in an exclusive store, Olivia (who
happened to be an ex-mistress given the same treatment).
The ambiance a plush chateau owned by French matriarch
Mme. de Persand, an elegant restaurant serving a $900 lunch
(a tab that upsets the American brother while treated like
nothing extraordinary by the French), the auction gallery selling
the painting owned by Roxy and her flighty husband Charles-
Henry serves to punctuate the differences between the stylish,
matter-of-fat French best illustrated by Leslie Caron as a French
Maggie Smith and the passionate Americans, best shown by the
hysterical pleas of Naomi Watts.
While Kate Hudson's education in the culture of the French
stands out, Naomi Watts's powerful performance is the ne plus
ultra of the film. As opposed to the calm exterior of the family
matriarch, Watts's face shows the fury and frustration of a
woman who is facing life with a daughter and a baby on the way
in a country whose culture she no longer accepts. Above all, we
never lose track of James Ivory's vision which is to trip the light
fantastic rather than indulge in melodramatic fanfare in a film
that shows how good can ultimately come from separation and
divorce.
Rated PG-13. 115 minutes.(c) 2003 by Harvey Karten at
Harvey...@cs.com
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X-RT-ReviewID: 1180349
X-RT-TitleID: 10002268
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X-RT-RatingText: B+