The Aspern Papers

The Aspern Papers_720p(480P)

source: The Aspern Papers

Despite the negative comments, I really liked this film. It wasn't a brilliant story but the acting and the scenery more than made up for this. I really liked the male actor even though I hadn't seen him before. Nice to see a movie these days that isn't MA15+........!!

While there have been many versions of Henry James' short story "The Aspern Papers", only the 1947 film "The Lost Moment" has had any type of impact, and unfortunately, this story version fails to live up to that. Like Robert Cummings in that version, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is dreadfully miscast. In fact, he is downright embarrassing, equivalent to Robert Redford in "Out of Africa", John Malkovich in "Dangerous Liasons" and Keanu Reeves in "Bram Stoker's Dracula". Unfortunately, he gets more screen time than Joey Richardson and Vanessa redgrave, so you are forced to endure him which at times is torture. While on the surface Susan Hayward seemed wrong for the role of Tina, she was quite right in choices she made in her performance, and Joely Richardson is decent. She is not photographed in a flattering light which really works here because the character of Tina, the niece of the extremely old Julianna (Vanessa Redgrave), is supposed to be like the character of Catherine in James' even more famous story "Washington Square". As for Redgrave, she does not appear to be anywhere near a 100 plus year old woman (seemingly jokingly said to be over 150), and at times, she seems to be emulating Katherine Hepburn and at other times the old chrone in "Snow White". She goes from demonic and seemingly evil in some scenes to sweet and extremely spiritual in others, and I had a difficult time grasping who this character was. At least with Agnes Moorehead, her footage was limited so you really only saw her as he extremely old lady with some very deep dark secrets. There are other elements that are confusing as well. For some reason, there appears to be a bisexual liaison between Meyers, Richardson and a very handsome man who really serves no purpose. As the film is only 90 minutes, had they give some detail to that, it might have been more believable. The film certainly is gorgeous to look at, and the classical music is generously played throughout, but emotionally, this is as empty as Juliana and Tina's lives, and even if I had not known what the letters regarded, I wouldn't have cared to stick around to find out. Perhaps some classic novelettes just can't be film successfully or would require someone with an artistic understanding of the writer's intentions, but from what I've seen, "The Aspern Papers" should be just left alone.

Couldn't get past about 15 minutes. Very boring. John Reyes Meyer was absolutely TERRIBLE. It might have been a decent movie but way too slow.

Part of the reason I love "costume dramas" or "period pieces" is the beautiful clothing and the style of the era. The costuming in The Aspern Papers is a weird patchwork of no specific eras. The woman who dresses like a man, along with her friends look like their clothing came from Alice in Wonderland or a colorful version of Steam Punk style. Miss Tina's dresses are more like a American prairie dress or a servant. Beyond that, it's pretty much a boring movie even for me, who loves almost any Austen, James or Wharton.

Oh dear me, what a frightful mess. Really no or little story line with such wooden acting from the main protagonist it was painful to watch. Avoid.

If Henry James (he wrote the short novel "The Aspern Papers") strikes you as a psychotic who somehow got lucky and achieved fame, this film deserves your attention. It takes his compulsive idolatry of social station and cancels out much, but not all, the 1%'r * *all* hat-dramas boil down to. And for this achievement, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers' much-maligned performance is maybe 99% responsible. Rhys-Meyers' "Morton Vint" is totally misunderstood by the majority of reviews here on IMDB. Rhys-Meyers makes his character--who is unnamed in James' novella--over-the-top repulsive from the opening voice-overs to the final fade-out. If you ask yourself, What is this film about? It's, first, about a trashy, low IQ American in pursuit of Percy Bysshe Shelley's letters ("Aspern" is the fictionalized name). To get his hands on them, he's willing to seduce and break the heart of the highly intelligent, refined, aging caregiver (Joely Richardson) of Shelley's elderly mistress (Vanessa Redgrave). Long-secluded from the world in Venice, Redgrave is as venal as Vint. It's regrettable that the film didn't make this as clear as it could have, although Redgrave's acting is as usual magnificent and does what it can with the script and direction. From a certain perspective, "Tina" (Richardson) is the victim of both Redgrave's unwarranted fame as a "great man's" mistress and Vint's unwarranted power as a dissolute American with too much money. I never lost interest in this film despite Rhys-Meyer's take on the (*not*) hero role. That Richardson's Tina falls for this self-promoter despite the incredible fortress pedigree and brains give her is a testimony to how excellent a seducer Vint is. Substitute Alec D'Urberville. Substitute Steerforth. Substitute any seducer from Victorian fiction for Vint, and you see what Rhys-Meyers must have been aiming for. He's loud, crude, stupid--but persistent. And his persistence pays off. Joely Richardson is magnetic in her role. Vanessa Redgrave and the eponymous letters are MacGuffins in what is really a battle of wills between only two people--Richardson and Rhys-Meyers. Richardson represents intelligence, grace, and wisdom; Rhys-Meyers does a great job at venality, brute force, and unremarkable shrewdness. "The Aspern Papers" is a revenge-drama of sorts. A woman as much of a "fortress" (Rhys-Meyers calls both Tina and Redgrave that) in danger of humiliating herself for an opportunist saves herself and achieves true freedom, not the spurious kind a "free-spirit" (Redgrave) who just liked to bed a lot of men achieved so long ago--so long ago that in adulthood and old age, her life has been a never-ending prayer for death. Richardson's physical appearance changes subtly but consistently from her first appearance to her last. The walls she and Redgrave keep in place to protect her from the world also tumble. The "Aspern" letters ironically snatch true love from the flames--an aging woman's love of self from the desperation she had fallen into, but not before she realizes that a man whose sole lust has always been for an object will necessarily be subhuman.

A remake of the far superior Robert Cummings, Susan Hayward movie 'The Lost Moment' only this time using the proper title from the book. Unfortunately, this one has none of the atmosphere or great acting of the original. All I can say is seek out the DVD of the original to see it done right, this one's not worth the paper it's written on!

I love Henry James and am always interested by film adaptations of his work but oh dear, this was embarrassingly bad. It does no justice to James's superb novella. A truly woeful performance by Rhys Meyers. And Morton Vint must be the silliest name in all film. Avoid at all costs.