Main Cast: Tara Fitzgerald, James Wilby, Simon Callow, Ian Richardson, Andrew Lincoln
Release Year: 1997
Country: UK
Run Time: 120 minutes
Plot
Along a dark country road in Cumberland, England, a ghoulish woman in white steps from the shadows to confront a foot traveler, Walter Hartright (Andrew Lincoln), bound for Limmeridge House three miles off. She asks senseless questions: "You don't suspect me of wrong, do you, Sir? Why do you suspect me of wrong?" Hartright assures her he suspects her of no wrong, but she gibbers on. When a carriage happens by, the woman dissolves into the darkness and Hartright accepts the offer of a ride the rest of the way to Limmeridge House, a mansion where eccentric esquire Frederick Fairlie (Ian Richardson) has arranged for Hartright to tutor his nieces -- half-sisters Marian and Laura Fairlie -- in the art of drawing. Soon, Hartright falls in love with Laura, a wealthy heiress. Strangely, she is the near mirror image of the woman in white. Laura, in turn, falls in love with him. Marian, who wants only the best for Laura, approves of the romance. Unfortunately, Hartright loses his job when falsely accused of bad conduct. Before he leaves Limmeridge House, he warns Laura that she and her sister are in grave danger. Deeply disappointed in him, Laura ignores his caveat and fulfills a pledge to marry Sir Percival Gylde (James Wilby). He seems amiable and even invites Marian to live with him and Laura after the wedding. But when Laura returns from the honeymoon, she is melancholy and morose, hardly speaking a word to Marian. Glyde and a sinister visitor named Count Fosco (Simon Callow) are the reasons. Apparently, they are plotting to seize her inheritance using the tidiest of stratagems: murder. Meanwhile, dark secrets unravel involving Glyde's family background and the mysterious woman in white, and Hartright returns in an attempt to save the sisters and exorcise the evil possessing Limmeridge House. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
Review
This production's award-winning cinematography and lighting subtly and unobtrusively support its spooky story with gossamer fog, shadowy corridors, ethereal faces, and moonlit nightscapes that announce what Shakespeare's witches did centuries before, "something wicked this way comes." But who or what is the wicked interloper? This film eventually reveals all, bit by bit, while viewers chew their nails and root for the two superb actresses in the central roles: Tara Fitzgerald as Marian Fairlie and Justine Waddell as Marian's half-sister, Laura. The sisters are beautiful, intelligent, vulnerable, and fiercely loyal to each other, making them the perfect darlings with whom viewers can identify. But it is their ability to manufacture suspense and urgency through a simple worried glance or a nervous hand reaching out for support that makes their acting convincing. In the roles of the villains, James Wilby (Sir Percival Glyde) and Simon Callow (Count Fosco) are wonderfully detestable as they machinate their way from seemingly benevolent chaps to quintessential rats. And Ian Richardson is marvelous as an eccentric old fart. The plot is complex, full of twists and turns, including dark secrets and a grave that may contain the wrong body. Woman in White is an excellent production that probes the meaning of love, greed, loyalty, and cruelty, while unmasking the normal as abnormal -- or even evil. The film is based loosely on the classic 1860 William Wilkie Collins novel of the same name. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
John Standing - Mr. Gilmore; Adie Allen - Margaret Porcher; Ann Bell - Mrs. Rideout; Justine Waddell - Laura Fairlie; Kika Markham - Mme. Fosco; Corin Redgrave - Dr. Kidson; Susan Vidler - Anne Catherick
Credit
Charmian Adams - Art Director, Odile Dicks-Mireaux - Costume Designer, Tim Fywell - Director, Robin Sales - Editor, David M. Thompson - Executive Producer, Ted Childs - Executive Producer, Rebecca Eaton - Executive Producer, Jonathan Powell - Executive Producer, David Ferguson - Composer (Music Score), Alice Normington - Production Designer, Richard Greatrex - Cinematographer, Gareth Neame - Producer, David Pirie - Screenwriter, Wilkie Collins - Book Author
