Highly Overrated But Still Good

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Minnie Driver acts well in this fantastical story. Its about a Jewess who pretends to be a Protestant, becomes a governess who helps stablize photography in its early days, and has a torrid affair with her employer. Then finally she becomes a famous photographer.The nudity and romance between Minnie and Tom Wilkinson is tedious and kind of disgusting. He's just way too old for her. Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays a love sick puppy in one of his earlier roles.It's obviously based on a rather bad novel but it's beautifully filmed.Worth a watch if you are a fan of Minnie. Otherwise the romance leaves a bad after taste.

I'm from the UK, but there's only so much of these typical period pieces that I can take. Gosh! the governess was very tasking for me, although it was refreshing to see a woman like the Jewish governess Minnie Driver plays here, exist and hold her own within that time frame. She is sent to go work as a governess in the home of Tom Wilkinson's character (who inadvertently falls in love with her) and sooner than later she becomes the center of the household for more reasons than one. The master's children are smitten with her, her mistress loathes but tolerates her and she (Driver) induces and nurtures an affair so scandalous with the man of the house that it is probably what inspired the son (played by Johnathan Rhys Myers) to come after her as well. The whole premise is sick, and nobody wins in the end. It was well-acted but that's about all I can say for it. Sorry if I truly spoiled the synopsis of this film for you but, I just couldn't help but tell it like it is. I have initiated the spoiler alert check-mark so please don't be too offended with my review.

THE GOVERNESS is a moody period piece, the meandering story of a Jewish woman who, upon the death of her father, sets out to 1830's Scotland, posing as a Gentile to get work to support her family in London.Rosina - or Mary, as she calls herself in a none too subtle piece of symbolic writing - is a rudderless child, a socialite with dreams of being an actress. She strikes up an alliance with her employer, and by accident solves a crucial problem in his research with photography. Giddy with success, they begin a halting and uncomfortable affair while the eldest son of her paramour falls hopelessly (and inexplicably) in love with her.And like a child, she fails to understand the consequences of her actions - in the end, betraying those she deceived in order to make a life for herself.Many claim this is something of a feminist manifesto, but I disagree. Whether intended or not, this film only resonates with me if I think of it as a cautionary tale. In the end, Rosina's greatest disappointment is the truth - that she lied, happened upon a way to help a man she wanted to be both her father and her lover, and in the end contributed nothing but destruction. As such, the end of the film gives me the impression that nothing she did, no one she used, made her happy - and that is exactly as it should be.Did I need a movie this long and langorous to teach me this lesson? Not at all. On the contrary, had it not been for excellent cinematography, unique score and my hope that she'd get her come-uppance, I wouldn't have stuck with it to the end of the film.Fans of Minnie Driver will likely be disappointed by her uneven performance but may wish to see it anyway; I doubt young female fans of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers will be able to stay awake for the payoff they expect, and I can't help thinking this holds too little cultural detail to be of interest, even to photography buffs. The 3 points I award the film are solely for its visual style and score. On the strength of their other work, I assume the actors' performances are so disappointing because of a poor script and worse directing, but they are, in the end, unremarkable.

I only watched this to see more of Jonathan Rhys Meyers work. I truly enjoyed this movie, it was beautiful. And the strange character played by JRM didn't disappoint me at all. It was educational as well. I found out some things about photography that I never know. This movie was great.