grauwulf24

A great style study, wonderful techniques, serious effort by many artists (even by many stylistically challenged actors) but ultimately empty film. See it, be very entertained (or offended), and leave forgetting it. Unfortunately so much of our cultural life is empty or lacking that many will be fooled merely by 'hipness' and style. It may be instructive to compare this to the excellent Spiderman 2, the failed Daredevil, the first Batman, etc...

I don't mind studies in style and often very much enjoy them as I did this film. But especially in our cultural desert and already demeaning society and Bush-league cruel world, I mind that it is given so much weight and meaning when it has none or merely has such celebration of cynical, superficial, negative, sometimes cruel perspectives.

A previous commenter's lack of real life relationship understanding clouded their perceptions of this fine film. It must be remembered that the story is very much true to the social strictures of the period in which it plays (1910's). All the characters have their very true to life individual reactions to this world and the demands of their passions.

The film is like an Ivory Merchant/Miramax film. It has an un-hurried, un-frenetic, pace but is not wasteful and captivates the viewer in the story and characters, and delights with the supporting scenery. Bonham-Carter, Allison Elliot, and in a supporting role, the ever reliable Charlotte Rampling, are wonderful even as their personal story may be perspectively painful. It is not an epic, but it is satisfyingly more than a "classics illustrated" adaptation of James his love story. Much of the literary description is eloquently translated into looks, pauses, and film.

100 Center St was a great show. Another of many (Boomtown is another) killed because it wasn't dumb enough, not of the formulae of the moment, and not immediately "hot", and therefore no immediate financial gratification or foreseeable success to the unimaginative producers or networks. It was gritty and sometimes controversial. It had the misfortune of being on a small unsure network that could not/would not afford longterm investment.

Alan Arkin, who plays a judge, was and is an American acting gem. Lumet's concept and writing was real, smart, painful, revelatory, and ultimately satisfying as great tragedies are. Overall the ensemble was a delight and made us want to know how they and stories would develop or cope with their many very real challenges - challenges that were common to many of us, and not the extremes shown on 'Law & Order' or 'House'...

(100 Center St is the real address of the downtown NYC courthouse. The show followed the working and personal lives of the judges, prosecutors, and defenders and the struggles between law, justice, politics, true care, and personal ambition or desire around this common case inner-city court.)