i just finish reading henry jam the bostonian and and though i find the book to be a fine read and rather effective in capture the many wave of emotion that flow through it often unappealing character and i can not say i be take much with it mean spirit and narrow satire . this three side love story involve a feminist spinster and her rather dim protégée and a southern knucklehead ( i be simplify wildly here ) involve me more than it should have and yet it leave a bad the taste in my mouth . what be one to make of a tale in which two of the most vulnerable character be leave wound by the hero ( olive chancellor in the present and verena tarrant in the future ) and noble ideal be trounce by bigotry and brutism and misogyny . the author phobic attitude toward the boston marriage of the two heroine seem to mirror that of the southern chauvinist basil ransom ( which be offputting ) and the book never quite recovers from thoroughly humanize the doomed female while set them up to be trounce by the great white male . give that i find the book to have such objectionable theme and i probably should have stay away from the film and but since movie have a long history of free adaptation of novel and i though that perhaps the film version of the bostonian might give some form and direction to james sometimes overwritten and anti feminist jeremiad . well and i should have leave well enough alone . the film be slavishly faithful to the book in all the wrong way lot of talk and very leisurely and never manages to improve upon it flaw . vanessa redgrave be rather remarkable and a be linda hunt and but everybody else come off sorely lack and especially poor christopher reeve who try to be dash but make ransom even more odious than in the book ( which i do not think possible ) . scene start and end with so little dramatic flow or sense that i really wonder what i would have make of the film have i not read the book ( i do not think any of the behavior of the character would have make the least bit of sense ) . though a weak attempt be make to make the end less sexist than in the book and it a case of too little and too late . the bostonian still remain a politically offensive minor effort easily overlook because it also commit the crime of be dull .