Content area
Full text
Film Review: Ethan Frome
When reviewing "hot Ethan" [Summer] for the Boston Evening Transcript, Edwin Francis Edgett, standing as point man for New England, demanded to know "Where in New England did Mrs. Wharton unearth ... the people for the latest novel?" Director John Madden has returned to that imaginary mountain to find Liam Neeson (Ethan), Patricia Arquette (Mattie) and Joan Allen (Zeena), the cast of his superb adaptation of Mrs. Wharton's classic tragedy, Ethan Frome.
Let the literary purist beware: there are differences between novel and film (written by Richard Nelson), yet the end result is a seamless, tasteful rendition which is sure to attract a major audience. We, as Whartonians, must be grateful for the intelligence and artistic excellence of the cast. We are not eternally saddled with an embarrassment such as Gregory Peck's Captain Ahab or Daniel Day Lewis's strong-but-sensitive "Long Rifle." (Mr. Lewis wil soon trade buckskins for brougham when he reappears...