Philidelphia Daily News
It’s a 19th-century ‚Caste Away‘
By Gary Thompson
Philadelphia Daily News
Published: Friday, January 19, 2001
Back when he was a standup comic, Drew Carey used to do a routine about dolphin-safe tuna nets.
He’d pretend to be a dolphin, flopping happily free of peril, then he’d pretend to be a tuna, looking up at the fisherman and saying, naively, „Hey, what about me?“
Carey has always played to a blue-collar crowd, and the joke scored because it pointed to a sort of undersea caste prejudice.
Movies like „House of Mirth“ put me in mind of this old routine.
It’s based on Edith Wharton’s novel of a wealthy young society woman who’s been raised to be a useful wife to a rich man, but who wants to marry for love.
She pays a heavy price for this, eventually stripped of her privileges until she reaches the point where she actually has to work.
Still, even at rock bottom, she’s no worse off than the rest of New York, and to her credit, she actually says as much.
„My situation is not exceptional.“
„But,“ says a rich friend, „YOU are.“
She’s a dolphin, you see, and she’s somehow ended up in the net with the rest of us tuna.
To fully appreciate this tragedy, it probably helps to be a dolphin, but the enduring popularity of Wharton’s novel indicates that you don’t have be.
Wharton’s expert, anthropological descriptions of the specifics and rituals of 19th-century high-society culture (also brought to the screen in „The Age of Innocence“), have their own allure, and her stories of women struggling to survive in a man’s world have enduring appeal.
That’s certainly true here. Lily Bart (Gillian Anderson) is smart and with-it, and evolved enough to rebel against the idea of marrying a dull rich man. She plays the game grudgingly, as her only means of survival.
In her heart, she wants a bit of a compromise – marriage to the man (Eric Stoltz) she loves, a lawyer who is slightly beneath her social station. Neither can bring themselves to propose, however.
Instead, she foolishly allows herself to be used by a wicked rival (Laura Linney) and abused by others in her circle, who exploit her limited options and her character weaknesses.
These weaknesses, however, are trivial, and because she pays an unfair price for them, Wharton’s story builds up considerable sympathy for Lily.
As does the performance of Anderson (TV’s „The X-Files“), whose stoic style is well suited to the starched period mannerisms on view in „House of Mirth.“ Later, she delivers fine moments of high emotion in the movie’s climactic moments.
Director Terrence Davies also gets high-water work from Anthony LaPaglia, as a calculating suitor whose mercenary proposals to Lily leave her aghast.