Washington Square (film)
| Washington Square | |
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Home video release poster
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| Directed by | Agnieszka Holland |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by | Carol Doyle |
| Based on |
Washington Square by Henry James |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Jan A.P. Kaczmarek |
| Cinematography | Jerzy Zielinski |
| Edited by | David Siegel |
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Production
companies |
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| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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116 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $1.9 million |
Washington Square is a 1997 American romantic drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. The screenplay by Carol Doyle is based on the 1880 novel of the same name by Henry James, which was filmed as The Heiress in 1949. The film was a critical success but a commercial failure.
A prologue introduces us to Dr. Austin Sloper (Albert Finney), a New York City doctor and resident of a large house on Washington Square whose wife dies in childbirth, leaving a daughter, Catherine (Jennifer Jason Leigh), to be raised by her father. As a child, Catherine is overweight, clumsy, and untalented; however, she is also a sweet, affectionate child. She adores her father and tries hard to please him, but he considers her a disappointment and treats her with ironic condescension. His thoughts are still much occupied with his beloved wife and with a promising son who died before Catherine was born, and he privately – but bitterly – resents his only surviving child for causing his wife's death.
Sloper invites Catherine's widowed aunt, the incurably foolish Lavinia Penniman (Maggie Smith), to live at Washington Square as a chaperone for Catherine. Catherine becomes a plain young woman who is painfully shy and inept in the social graces expected of someone of her class, despite her aunt's best efforts to instill them. Apart from her sweet nature, Catherine possesses only one obvious attraction: money. She earns $10,000 annually from her mother's estate, and will inherit considerably more when her father dies.
At a party celebrating her cousin Marian Almond's (Jennifer Garner) engagement, Catherine is introduced to a handsome, charming young man named Morris Townsend (Ben Chaplin). He is attentive, respectful, and – to Catherine's obvious astonishment – clearly interested in her. He begins paying regular calls at Washington Square. Before long, the susceptible Catherine falls headlong in love with him. Sloper, however, suspects Townsend of being a fortune hunter, with no intention of pursuing a career. Aunt Lavinia loves melodrama and gets a vicarious thrill from Townsend's attentions; and so, contrary to Sloper's wishes, she does all she can to encourage the relationship, even meeting Townsend secretly to collude with him.
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