THE HOUSE OF MIRTH

Gillian Anderson stars as Edith Wharton's husband-hunting heroine Lily Bart, in a poetic and nuanced adaptation of the classic novel that scrutinized courtship rituals in 1905 New York City and found a filigreed (emphasis on the “greed”) society, where unwritten but universally understood rules dictate that women are bred to land a moneyed mate from the upper classes. Here, marriage is chiefly a business arrangement – but dangerously unwed at 29 and with minimal support from her own grasping family, the ravishing Lily has lingered too long and deliberated too much over which one of her rich suitors possesses the right combination of sincerity, status and healthy financial portfolio. An ill-timed scandal turns friends against Lily and threatens to reduce our heroine from a chooser to a beggar. Before long Miss Bart finds her options running out. Freuent comedian Dan Aykroyd, as the ardent (and married) Gus Trenor, once again proves that he is a largely untapped source of dramatic talent, but it's Anderson, in her first big-screen leading role, who shines at the luminous heart of this elegant yet treacherous world, a New York of yesteryear that director Terence Davies evoked whilst largely shooting on a relatively small budget in Glasgow, Scotland.