The Wings of the Dove

Streamlining Henry James's notoriously dense novel, this film brings its melodramatic and erotic undertones to the forefront. A well-bred but impoverished English girl (Helena Bonham-Carter), secretly engaged to an equally impecunious journalist (Linus Roache), persuades her lover to pay court to a young American heiress dying of TB (Alison Elliott). The plot thickens as the three take a pleasure trip to Venice. The close-up cinematography brings out the superb performances of the three stars--especially Bonham-Carter, who brilliantly captures her character's complexities.