The Portrait of a Lady

December. 24,1996      PG-13
Rating:
6.2
Trailer Synopsis Cast

Ms. Isabel Archer isn't afraid to challenge societal norms. Impressed by her free spirit, her kindhearted cousin writes her into his fatally ill father's will. Suddenly rich and independent, Isabelle ventures into the world, along the way befriending a cynical intellectual and romancing an art enthusiast. However, the advantage of her affluence is called into question when she realizes the extent to which her money colors her relationships.

Nicole Kidman as  Isabel Archer
John Malkovich as  Gilbert Osmond
Barbara Hershey as  Madame Serena Merle
Mary-Louise Parker as  Henrietta Stackpole
Christian Bale as  Edward Rosier
Shelley Winters as  Mrs. Touchett
Richard E. Grant as  Lord Warburton
Shelley Duvall as  Countess Gemini
John Gielgud as  Mr. Touchett
Viggo Mortensen as  Caspar Goodwood

Similar titles

The Cat and the Moon
Prime Video
The Cat and the Moon
Nick comes to New York to temporarily live with a jazz musician friend of his late father's named Cal while his mom is in rehab. During his time in the city, he befriends a group of kids who show him what New York has to offer.
The Cat and the Moon 2019
Apocalypse Now
Prime Video
Apocalypse Now
At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.
Apocalypse Now 2001
Paradise Now
Paradise Now
Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
Paradise Now 2005
Billy Elliot
Max
Billy Elliot
County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.
Billy Elliot 2000
Blade Runner
Max
Blade Runner
In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their creator for a way to extend their short life spans.
Blade Runner 1982
Anatomy of a Murder
Anatomy of a Murder
Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious business partner, who's hiding a dark secret.
Anatomy of a Murder 1959
Pretty Woman
Prime Video
Pretty Woman
When a millionaire wheeler-dealer enters a business contract with a Hollywood hooker Vivian Ward, he loses his heart in the bargain.
Pretty Woman 1990
Dracula
Prime Video
Dracula
British estate agent Renfield travels to Transylvania to meet with the mysterious Count Dracula, who is interested in leasing a castle in London and is, unbeknownst to Renfield, a vampire. After Dracula enslaves Renfield and drives him to insanity, the pair sail to London together, and as Dracula begins preying on London socialites, the two become the subject of study for a supernaturalist professor, Abraham Van Helsing.
Dracula 1931
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front
When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during World War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.
All Quiet on the Western Front 1930
The Secret Life of Words
The Secret Life of Words
A touching story of a deaf girl who is sent to an oil rig to take care of a man who has been blinded in a terrible accident. The girl has a special ability to communicate with the men on board and especially with her patient as they share intimate moments together that will change their lives forever.
The Secret Life of Words 2005

You May Also Like

Taxi Driver
Paramount+
Taxi Driver
A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feed his urge for violent action.
Taxi Driver 1976
Escape from New York
Prime Video
Escape from New York
In a world ravaged by crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a walled prison where brutal prisoners roam. After the US president crash-lands inside, war hero Snake Plissken has 24 hours to bring him back.
Escape from New York 1981
Call Me by Your Name
HULU
Call Me by Your Name
In 1980s Italy, a relationship begins between seventeen-year-old teenage Elio and the older adult man hired as his father's research assistant.
Call Me by Your Name 2017
Alien Resurrection
Prime Video
Alien Resurrection
Two hundred years after Lt. Ripley died, a group of scientists clone her, hoping to breed the ultimate weapon. But the new Ripley is full of surprises … as are the new aliens. Ripley must team with a band of smugglers to keep the creatures from reaching Earth.
Alien Resurrection 1997
Sicario
Prime Video
Sicario
An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.
Sicario 2015
Bombshell
Prime Video
Bombshell
Bombshell is a revealing look inside the most powerful and controversial media empire of all time; and the explosive story of the women who brought down the infamous man who created it.
Bombshell 2019
Marie Antoinette
Prime Video
Marie Antoinette
An Austrian teenager marries the Dauphin of France and becomes that country's queen following the death of King Louis XV in 1774. Years later, after a life of luxury and privilege, Marie Antoinette loses her head during the French Revolution.
Marie Antoinette 2006
Blue Valentine
Max
Blue Valentine
Dean and Cindy live a quiet life in a modest neighborhood. They appear to have the world at their feet at the outset of the relationship. However, his lack of ambition and her retreat into self-absorption cause potentially irreversible cracks in their marriage.
Blue Valentine 2010
Crossroads
Crossroads
After eight years apart, three childhood friends - Lucy, Kit, and Mimi - rediscover their friendship on a cross-country trip. With barely a plan, practically no money but plenty of dreams, the girls catch a lift with Mimi's handsome friend Ben in his convertible. Along the way they not only gather experiences that will change their lives, but they also discover how important it is to hold onto their hearts' desires.
Crossroads 2002
The Petrified Forest
The Petrified Forest
Gabby, the waitress in an isolated Arizona diner, dreams of a bigger and better life. One day penniless intellectual Alan drifts into the joint and the two strike up a rapport. Soon enough, notorious killer Duke Mantee takes the diner's inhabitants hostage. Surrounded by miles of desert, the patrons and staff are forced to sit tight with Mantee and his gang overnight.
The Petrified Forest 1936

Reviews

AniInterview
1996/12/24

Sorry, this movie sucks

... more
FuzzyTagz
1996/12/25

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

... more
Ginger
1996/12/26

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

... more
Cristal
1996/12/27

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

... more
lasttimeisaw
1996/12/28

Jane Campion's fifth feature is an egregiously overlooked period adaptation of Henry James' popular eponymous novel published in 1881, as a much-awaited follow-up to her Oscar-winning feminist paragon THE PIANO (1993), and recruits a sublime cast including two acting legends Winters and Gielgud, who deign to limited roles in their twilight years, the disappointment is quite plausible, a common expectation overkill. Now, nearly two-decades later, it is time to give it a level- headed appraisal.Set in the Victorian era, a 23-year-old American maiden Isabel Archer (Kidman) arrives in England to stay with her prosperous uncle Mr. Touchett (Gielgud), and is admired by her cousin Ralph Touchett (Donovan), who is inflicted with consumption. Isabel brushes aside a marriage proposal from a British nobleman Lord Warburton (Grant), since it is just too conventional for her, but as a "modern" woman, she also rebuffs the persistent courtship of a fellow American Caspar Goodwood (Mortensen), whom she thinks unsuitable for her and more importantly, she takes marriage quite lightly. After receiving a munificent fortune bequeathed by her uncle, which verily is suggested by Ralph and occasioned the interest from Madame Serena Merle (Hershey), an American compatriot, who introduces her to an art collector Gilbert Osmond (Malkovich) in Florence, her nature of free-will will succumb to a horrid marriage in Rome and more startling truth will be revealed from Osmond and Serena, finally she escapes to England to visit Ralph on his deathbed, divulges her inner feelings for him, but the ambiguous ending leaves audience assuming that Isabel's future is still uncertain.The picture is a dialogue-driven rite-of-passage, where the young Isabel rebels against the accepted social protocol, but unfortunately becomes the victim of the malevolence emitting from those who harbour the ulterior motivations (Osmond is impatiently eager to marry off his daughter to the highest bidder, and Serena, whose motive is rather oblique at the start, but makes the perfect sense when a major twist is laid bare), meanwhile it profoundly inquires into the internal states of a beauty who owns everything (wealth, youth and independence), perpetually courted by the opposite sex, and swirled to lose her own footing in the process. This time Campion's feminist angle is less caustic but percolates understatedly through Isabel's trials and tribulations (from her dreamlike sexual arousal foursome, to the black-and white vintage footages of her journey under the hypnosis of Gilbert's deadly charm). Running around 2 and a half hours, with the winsome trappings such as graceful camera-work, majestic art production and an engrossing score, the film is Campion's most ambitious project to date, it is a crying shame to receive the cold shoulder.Kidman is brave enough to restrain from her usual detached elegance and flourishes in the inner- searching voyage where Isabel would eventually come clean to her own true feeling, however unfathomable it is, a very exacting performance for her. Malkovich is the archetype of being viciously seductive, pulls off a much more convincing job than his Vicomte de Valmont in Stephen Frears' DANGEROUS LIAISONS (1988), another period extravaganza. But the real show-stopper is Ms. Hershey, triumphantly oscillates between scheming and confessionary, even stirs up more pathos in her own subplot, it becomes her only Oscar-nominated performance so far. If one must find fault among the fine cast, I have to pick Martin Donovan, whose contemporary look and uninviting disposition fail to bring Ralph Touchett, the true soul-mate of Isabel but curbed by his illness, to the foreground, which really causes a markdown in the film's emotional culmination. Be that as it may, the film should have received a more enthusiastic reception, and especially for Jane Campion, she is a mainstay figure among contemporary female filmmakers and deserves more opportunities entrusted upon her talent.

... more
tomfme
1996/12/29

Not everyone can be Merchant and Ivory, too bad this team didn't realize this. It took 2 tries to even get through it... I walked out of the theater on first viewing. Well the second wasn't much better. So much waisted talent, source material, set design. I do blame the director. This is an absolute mess! Even the characters are forgettable, the scenes far too long, the pace horrible slow. I'm trying to write enough lines to get this review in, but what is there to say, its just a bad film all the way around. a bad film a good story but a bad film. Don't waste your time. Seek another film of this period to enjoy.

... more
marc-herbert
1996/12/30

A dreadful version of the great novel. Shame on you Laura Jones. Shame on the director for depicting Isabel Archer (Nicole Kidman) as a rather plain, uninteresting young woman with a goofy hairdo. What can possibly attract all of those men who want to marry her? And the ending was completely unsatisfactory. A much better way of telling this story, since James' prose is so rich with internal motivations and feelings which cannot easily be revealed by dialogue or even by facial expressions, would be to have voice-over. This would have allowed for a much improved climax. There are only two commendable elements here. One is the cinematography and the other actor John Malkovich, who portrayed a superb Osmond.

... more
Rozinda
1996/12/31

Spoilers throughout Most of the acting is fine. But I had a problem with the later Kidman scenes. Kidman needed less of the weeping and more anger or deviousness, to keep herself away from her vile husband as much as possible. Instead she is a typical victim, inviting his spite and weeping when he exerts it. She even lets the thug hit her.Clearly Isabel was heading for a fall right from the start of the story. She's quite convinced there's no point in marrying her decent suitor Goodwood, she wants as people often do to live it up for some years before marriage. Unfortunately, she isn't nearly as clever as she thinks she is and it's not long before she's met the devious Merle and has been hoodwinked into marriage with Merle's vile lover Osmond so that the pair of them can live on Isabel's money.Standard Henry James type of theme. American girls take people at face value but expect value for money. Europeans are devious and will say/do anything to get an American heiress's money as they are always had up but want to live the high life. Isabel is naive - totally fooled by Osmond's pretence to be an aesthete. Osmond is a self-satisfied, conceited, totally self-centred and selfish jerk who thinks he's a wonderful and admirable aesthete whom everyone should admire but we audience see through him right from the start. Even his long-time mistress and mother of the child Pansy, Merle, is deceived by him until he finally, at the end, tells her he never cared about her either and she realises she has wasted her life on him and suffered from having to hide the true identity of her child for nothing.Osmond's method is the well-known "Whatever happens it's always your fault, I am perfect and blameless, I am a saint and you are selfish/thoughtless/stupid/venomous/a liar/hiding the truth/whatever along with the ruthless Victorian head of the family you do as I say nonsense that women had to put up with in that period. The jaw dropping thing is that Isabel becomes totally witless - seems to believe all this drivel from her vicious husband and begs his forgiveness every time. She becomes aware gradually that he is being unfair but hasn't the guts to tell him so to his face and then walk out - it would be difficult but perfectly possible for her to have fled with her American lover Goodwood who is at his wits end why it is she won't be with him even though clearly she has feelings for him.Osmond's daughter falls for "the wrong man". Isabel tries to help Pansy, by helping to deter the suitor her father wants, but Osmond soon finds out, accuses his wife of being treacherous and sends his daughter to a convent to "think about her errors and her future". Pansy proves to be like her father - treacherous. She tells Isabel dismissively, "I have learned that I must always obey my father." So much for Isabel trying to help the girl to be with the man who loved her - Pansy is revealed as shallow like her parents. Isabel is a fool - she has allowed herself to be brainwashed by a jerk because she thought he was glamorous (though anyone less glamorous than this Osmond would be hard to find, I disliked him on sight, quite correctly). Isabel's kindly cousin Ralph has the sadly not unusual consumption, and now is dying and Isabel goes to him in England in spite of her husband refusing to believe Ralph was that ill, ie a means to again force his wife to his own bidding through trading on her loyalty. But Isabel is more loyal to Ralph and goes to him.Ralph dies. Goodwood is there and at last we think it is his time. Can Isabel is well away from her Florence-based husband. She can now go back to the USA with devoted Goodwood? In an outdoor scene, she finally makes clear she now loves Goodwood and kisses him, but then she runs away from him back into the house. The movie ends with her standing at the door of the house looking towards the camera. You can't tell for sure what she'll do next but there's a feeling of foreboding.Beats me why the movie didn't finish the story. Goodwood calls next day only to discover that Isabel has gone straight back to her husband. We are told her friend who has been Ralph's companion has "taught Goodwood how to wait". How long, the reader wonders? Presumably until Osmond dies, but that man I would suspect will outlive everyone and Isabel will never leave him because if she did, she'd betray her own original conceit that she wanted to live an exciting and meaningful life. Basically, Isabel is a silly, self-destructive woman. She could never make any man happy. She needs, it seems, to be bullied.

... more