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List Price: $9.99 | | Label: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Salesrank: 30209
Released: September 3, 2002 |
| Our Price: $4.29 |
| Used Price: $3.69 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Riveting performances from an all-star cast highlight this passionate tale of a young heiress who must choose between love or money! Jennifer Jason Leigh (SINGLE WHITE FEMALE) is Catherine, a lonely young woman in search of happiness ... until she is swept off her feet by the handsome Morris Townsend (Ben Chaplin -- MURDER BY NUMBERS, THE THIN RED LINE). Suspicious of the young man's true intentions, however, her controlling father (Albert Finney -- ERIN BROCKOVICH, TRAFFIC) threatens to disown Catherine if she follows her heart and marries against his wishes! You're sure to find this timeless story both powerful and entertaining.
Description of Washington Square:
In biographies written before 1990, Jennifer Jason Leigh claims to have been born in 1958. Recently, she's changed that to 1962. In either case, she definitely looks a bit odd in this 1998 release playing a 20-year-old opposite the youthful Ben Chaplin. Even stranger is the fact that she's been cast as the ugly girl; after all, she was voted one of America's 10 most beautiful women by Harper's Bazaar. Still, this film captures to a T the Henry James novel on which it is based. The story concerns Catherine Sloper, a 19th-century heiress whose father disapproves of the man she loves. In a twisty plot, questions are raised about both her father's and her suitor's motives, and Catherine must untangle the connections between love and money. This provides fodder for Henry James's critiques of the shallowness and sexism of his society. Some find James's work stiff, self-important, and a bit dull, while others see him as the most astute social critic of his time, so your enjoyment of this film may be a matter of taste. But it's definitely a period piece done right, which is to say that it fully captures its era, and never stoops to anachronisms that would interrupt the viewer's sense of an older, crueler world. --James DiGiovanna
Washington Square Reviews:
19th century type romanic novel brought to life 
2009-12-14 - This novel as a movie brings to mind Jane Austin with the 19th century
morays. Where Jane Austin pulled happiness out of all odds,
this has a more American tragic bent in which a father's domination
dooms the love of his relatively homely daughter.
In truth he turns out to be a fortune hunter,
but the main theme is the father who loves his daughter
but can't really see her or her life in real terms.
At the last he even cuts her from his will,
after she has been his faith final nurse.
There is nothing here but a tragic old maid end for the daughter
who takes up teaching small children.
It will make you think 
2009-06-17 - I saw this movie about five years ago and liked it, but was a bit disappointed in the ending. I'm a big fan of movies based on books by Jane Austen, so I'm used to everything working out in the end. Recently I viewed "Washington Square" a second time and found it extremely compelling and thought provoking (as well as being entertaining). Catherine and Morris are complex characters and you never really know exactly what they are thinking or what their motivations truly are. I think Morris wanted Catherine's money, but I'm not convinced that he was simply a fortune hunter. I think he felt like he and Catherine could make each other reasonably happy and he wouldn't have to toil for his living, which he seemed to think was beneath him. After the trip abroad, why did Catherine refuse to ask her father again for his consent as Morris obviously wanted her to? She was willing to risk losing Morris in order not to beg of her father. Perhaps she knew it was pointless, but it seemed to me that she just flat out refused to even try. When Morris says "Yes, I wanted you and I wanted your money, is that so horrible?", I found myself sympathizing with him--was it so horrible to want both? After all, he doesn't say "I never wanted you, I only wanted the money." At one point the married aunt says something to the father along the lines of "you've worked all your life for your fortune, can you not give it to Catherine and allow her to have it in a happy state." But the father isn't willing to do that--I don't think simply because he views Morris as a fortune hunter, but also because he harbors deep resentment and refuses to see Catherine happy when he was denied happiness due to his wife dying in childbirth. It's wonderful to watch a movie where the main character evolves and that happens with Catherine in this film. She is a much changed person in a span of eight to ten years. Another viewer may read this review and feel very differently about the happenings of the story. That is what is so compelling about this film--it forces you to think and it certainly makes you feel.
Very fine piece of acting
2009-06-10 - Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance as Catherine Soper in this film version of Henry James' "Washington Square" is one of the great acting cameos of the 1990s.Cruelly exposed to her father's psychological abuse,we see her undergo agonies of low self-esteem and self-loathing until,in the movie's final stages,the worm turns.It is this transformation at the end of the film that leaves us dwelling upon what has preceded it.In addition to the cold downputting by her father,played convincingly by Albert Finney,Catherine suffers yet again from the exploitative manoeuvres of her aunt and,last but not least,by her supposed "amour",Maurice Townsend,played by Ben Chaplin.His performance rises above its earlier Uriah Heep awfulness as he displays the cold and selfish innermost layers of his heart.In a world where she is constantly treated as a tool of the male sex,Catherine's ultimate response is devastatingly shown at the end.At least she has become her own person but the cost has been high and she will never,we think,be able to open up again to any displays of human warmth.
The recreation of late C19 New York is a feast for the eyes in this production.The house in Washington Square exhibits well the mental tidiness of the times.It's built on a wealthy,large scale but its many spaces reflect the coldness that characterises the running of family life in its big,empty rooms.The costumes,the food,the music: all underlie the strict mores of the genteel set of that time.There is little room here for big warm fires and happy partying and a daughter must do what others decide for her.
This production is every bit as good as the earlier Joan Fontaine/Montgomery Clift version,in black and white.And there is nothing in the earlier version to compare with this brilliant tour de force of Jennifer Jason Leigh.She deserved the highest award in acting for this memorable role.
excellent print
2009-03-05 - An excellent print of a very enjoyable movie. The print quality is most important to me.
WASHINGTON SQUARE
2008-09-23 - I have both versions of this movie; the original being
"The Heiress" with Olivia deHavilland, but Jennifer Jason Leigh was made for this role. Excellent cast, excellent film!!
