The 26-year-old Joan Fontaine doesn't just rise to the challenge of playing a 14-year-old, she never makes you doubt the age for a second. Her performance is a ball of pure energy as she bounds up and down stairs and unconsciously throws her body about without a care. It's hard to imagine anyone accomplishing what Fontaine did in '43 on a physical level. Thanks to Fontaine, you also get every bit a sense of the kind of hopeless romanticism that comes with youth. Even with a charismatic presence like Charles Boyer sharing the screen, Fontaine's performance is so magnetic and thoughtful, it's impossible to focus on anyone else. It's a genuine star turn.
The film itself is a bit more jumbled. Goulding uses some amazing tracking shots, foreshadows like a pro, and makes the most of the film's melodramatic plot. But there's too much story to unravel over the runtime. It also doesn't help that the difference in age between Fontaine and Boyer's characters constitutes an illegal relationship.
No comments:
Post a Comment