From the moment she steps out of the smoke at a train station, Gillian Anderson is amazing as Lily Bart, a woman torn between being true to herself and securing a place in her world. Althought the movie is set in the early 1900's, her struggle with making a life for herself while surrounded by treacherous friends with their own agendas feels completely relevant. Working from a terrific script, Anderson draws nuance, meaning and emotion from her lines and the circumstances in which she finds herself, as she puts it, "doing the wrong thing at the right time". The journey she took me through in this movie was invigorating, thought provoking, engrossing and ultimately heartbreaking. The supporting cast, including Day Akroyd, Anthony LaPaglia and Terry Kinney, hold their own and fill out the movie beautifully. But Laura Linney deserves special mention as Lily's cunning, manipulative rival posing as a friend. Although very much a period piece, the film goes beyond some of the best pictures of Merchant-Ivory in bringing to life Wharton's novel, presenting a darker movie about the consequences of choices and the cost of guilelessness in a ruthless world. It also pulls Scully out of her basement and into the spotlight where her talents deserve to have her.
Review of The House of Mirth
