director meg richman have try and a others have try and to convert a henry james literary work into a compelling movie and but fall far short and a others have before her ( see wing of the dove and the bostonian and the ambassador and portrait of a lady and and daisy miller ) . james novel and novella and base on the late victorian age of social suffocation ( most often visit upon woman yearn to be free ) and be ponderous and often very depressing examination of love and deceit and devotion and recklessness and human folly . the list go on and on . if it about the stricture of human emotion and james be your man . his great strength in print be his weakness when transmit to the screen represent he conduct painstaking examination of humanity inner self and and be a challenge to read . those who try to adapt his film ( and try to be faithful to them ) tend to sink under the weight of his relentless psychological question . in the shadow and aka under heaven and in the garden and be at least a two hankie drama that be base on wing of the dove . it be partially effective and but it ultimately become basically yet another one of them thar soap opries and replete with hokey dialogue . if you watch the theatrical trailer for this film and you would think you be go to watch something entirely different . the trailer suggest a hot blood and scandalous examination of secret sex and intrigue . in other word and a so often happen and the distributor must have decide the flick need more juice and more edge when no such juice or edge exist . we know go in what be go to happen in this movie and and any number of sensation make trailer will not change thing . molly parker a cynthia and aden young a buck give surprisingly good performance a lover who be transform by a series of sad event . but i be really surprise by joely richardson performance . she be a classically trained actor and but she seem to be miscast in this movie . she seem indifferent to her part ( for good reason it seem to me ) and and speak her line with a flatness that be almost comical . this love be strong and she intone to buck ( young ) and strong than cancer . embarrass . ( coincidentally and richardson real life mother and vanessa redgrave and who have never give a bad cinematic performance and still have to struggle in the 1985 adaptation of james the bostonian . it do not work represent the movie be one boring flop . ) richman deserve a lot of credit for try to rework james and to try and give u a erious film amidst all the popcorn crap . but to me it a pretty lose cause . it very hard to pull james out of the insufferable parlour of the 19th century .