the governess be a moody period piece and the meander story of a jewish woman who and upon the death of her father and set out to 1830 scotland and posing a a gentile to get work to support her family in london . rosina or mary and a she call herself in a none too subtle piece of symbolic writing be a rudderless child and a socialite with dream of be an actress . she strike up an alliance with her employer and and by accident solves a crucial problem in his research with photography . giddy with success and they begin a halting and uncomfortable affair while the eldest son of her paramour fall hopelessly ( and inexplicably ) in love with her . and like a child and she fail to understand the consequence of her action in the end and betray those she deceive in order to make a life for herself . many claim this be something of a feminist manifesto and but i disagree . whether intend or not and this film only resonate with me if i think of it a a cautionary tale . in the end and rosina great disappointment be the truth that she lie and happen upon a way to help a man she want to be both her father and her lover and and in the end contribute nothing but destruction . a such and the end of the film give me the impression that nothing she do and no one she use and make her happy and that be exactly a it should be . do i need a movie this long and langorous to teach me this lesson . not at all . on the contrary and have it not be for excellent cinematography and unique score and my hope that she would get her come uppance and i wouldn not have stick with it to the end of the film . fan of minnie driver will likely be disappoint by her uneven performance but may wish to see it anyway while i doubt young female fan of jonathan rhys meyers will be able to stay awake for the payoff they expect and and i can not help think this hold too little cultural detail to be of interest and even to photography buff . the 3 point i award the film be solely for it visual style and score . on the strength of their other work and i assume the actor performance be so disappointing because of a poor script and bad directing and but they be and in the end and unremarkable .