Very Flawed Golden Bowl

Although the bowl of the title is slightly flawed, the movie was horribly flawed. The acting is so bad, that the director must be held responsible. Who would believe Merchant & Ivory could release this drivel. I assume Henry James is hard to turn into a movie. I can't read his writing, but several of his books have been turned into pretty good films, especially "Wings of the Dove" "The Heiress" and "Portrait of a Lady". Maybe the choice of casting was bad, or maybe the director couldn't see how bad the acting was, or perhaps the script was tweaked enough to make it engaging...whatever it was this movie failed the viewer completely. The photography, costuming and sets were lovely as always. So perhaps it's worth watching if you turn off the sound?

4/10