Rating: 
Summary: Excellent film about a tragic story in a cruel world
Review: I really liked this film because Gillian Anderson was great in this film, and the movie exposes the shallow and almost stupdendous nature of european/american society at that time. The setting is beautiful, the actors are good, the story, is good, although you will probably need to see it more than once. Its great film for those with patience and intelligence. For those of you who have neither I recommend you seeing Arnie.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing--read the novel instead
Review: Gillian Anderson's acting is stilted, and the lavish sets and costumes hardly make up for the slow, plodding, spell-everything-out-for-you-and-hit-you-over-the-head-with-it pace of the plot. She seems in awe with herself, which is entirely unbecoming. Her entire manner reeks of, "Look at me!" It comes across as very self-conscious and narcissistic, which detracts from the story itself. The focus is more on Anderson in a costume than it is on Wharton's novel. She's trying too hard, and the role obviously does not come naturally to her. Her attitude is grim rather than dignified. Give it a miss, and read the novel instead.
Rating:
Summary: TRAGIC
Review: ....but not dreary
This film is MORE than pretty costumes and beautiful sets.
The acting on ALL PARTS is very good. Gillian Anderson surprised me, I like her in her role as Scully on the X-files but didn't expect her to pull this off...I was wrongBased on a story by Edith Wharton, and set in New York in the early turn of the 20th century.
Gillian Anderson plays Lily Bart. She lives with her aunt who gives her a modest allowance. Lily has a taste for luxury and insists she pays her own way, she plays bridge for money, creating debts...she's very naive She has many influencial suitors and could easily marry. But she's in love with Lawrence Selden (Stoltz) a lawyer. Who is equally in love with Lily, but neither seem to want to marry. One of her suitors, a married investor "Gus" Trenor, offers to invest some money for her, ending with a sum of $9,000. She spends it, only to learn that it was actually his money. She can't do what he expects from her, so now she's in debt to him. She becomes in posession of some letters which could be very damaging to her married friend Bertha Dorset (Linney) ; which Bertha had written to Lawrence Selden. Bertha seems to be in an unhappy marriage with her husband George, George tells Lily, if it wasn't for her he would had left Bertha long ago. Tensions grow between Bertha & Lily, when Lily accompanies them on their yacht. Bertha goes off with a man and doesn't come back to the boat until 7.00 A.M. When Lily approaches her, Bertha turns on her and makes a scene at a dinner party, telling Lily she won't be allowed back on the yacht with her and George. Her aunt dies and instead of leaving everything to Lily (like everyone expected) Lily only gets $10,000. Which will have to go directly to Mr. Trenor. Mr. Rosedale ( Anthony La Paglia) offers to marry her, only if she uses the letters against Bertha, which would "redeem" Lily in the eyes of her society..."It'd be so easy" she'd have Bertha in the palm of her hand.
She declines... Mr. Selden is also tied to the letters She instead enters the working class, attempting apprenticeship at millinery, but that doesn't work. Mrs. Hatch takes her in to keep track of her appointments and fill her prescribtions, but lets her go; she fears Lily's reputation might taint her... Lily leaves Mrs Hatch but keeps one of her prescriptions...... Lily refuses all offers of help, even Mr. Rosedale's offer to pay off her debt to Mr. Trenor..she won't swallow her pride, and wants to go it alone.....to the tragic end... Gillian Anderson is enjoyable, her portrayal is fresh & poignant . Laura Linney is always good, as is Eric Stoltz and Anthony La Paglia. Hopefully we will be seeing more of Gillian Anderson. It IS a long movie just over 2 1/2 hours, but I hardly noticed. Perhaps not the kind of movie you could watch over and over. But it's a good movie.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful but dreary
Review: The sets and costumes are beautiful; but my gosh this is a slow, boring movie. The reviewer who said they felt relief when Lily finally kills herself had it absolutely right. The acting is far too artificial -- only Eric Stoltz is bearable. Gillian Anderson is dreadfully wooden. This cast is simply not up to acting a period drama (at least Dan Aykroyd realized this and didn't even try).
Compared with the other versions of James and Wharton novels, this is a major disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: THe House of Mirth
Review: I offer additional info as to the wonderful music in this film. Per the previous posting regarding the music, yes, Bordin's "This Is My Beloved" is played several times throughout this film. However, the more prominent theme, the theme that plays during the opening scene and the theme that the Lily Bart character pecks out on the piano, is the 2nd movement of the Marcello Oboe Concerto (sans oboe). It is a beautiful and lamentful theme that, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. I am an oboist and have played this full concerto many times.
Rating:
Summary: Visit Gillian's "House"...
Review: Gillian Anderson, Emmy winner for her role as Dana Scully on television's "The X Files", has long been a favorite actress of mine. Since first seeing her as the skeptical FBI agent on Fox TV, I've come to realize, along with a legion of fans, that her success is not a fluke. Gillian Anderson can act...beautifully! She proves this with her role as Lily Bart, a woman who makes some painful mistakes in the direction her life should take and pays the ultimate price. At a time when a woman's role is defined by her marriage to a man, Lily tries to stall her acceptance of marriage, hoping that the man she loves will come around. Losing her chances for a life with an acceptable position in society, she soon becomes the victim of the back stabbing of a so-called friend, played wonderfully by Laura Linney. Unfortunately for Lily, she begins a downward spiral that can only end in tragedy. The cast in this movie (Eric Stoltz, Laura Linney, especially) is very good. The direction, though not as good as Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence", moves the story along nicely. I highly recommend this film.
Rating: 
Summary: Someone wanted the name of the music from this film ...
Review: The music was from the 19th century Russian composer, Borodin. Borodin's music was given words and used in the musical Kismet. (Borodin became the first dead guy to win a Tony for best musical.) The tune used in The House of Mirth was Kismet's "And This is My Beloved," (sans vocals). If you like Borodin, you will probably also like Rimsky-Korsakov, composer of the beautiful classic: Scheherazade. After Borodin's death, his friend Rimsky-Korsakov actually finished some of Borodin's compositions.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Drama
Review: I can't get the music piece used for the credits out of my head. I have heard it before, but can't remember the title. I would thank anyone for posting the title to this music. Yes, the film was very interesting - a great story. A story of how people get so overcome in life with appearances and reputations.
Rating:
Summary: nice sets
Review: I have liked the Wharton I've read, but I don't know this book. However, I rather doubt that this is a successful translation to the screen. Instead of feeling sorry for the Lily Bart character I was actually relieved when she got flushed -- she is just so painfully stupid and manages to be destructive to herself and several other people. Also, instead of "a captured dryad", Ms. Anderson looks worried and very short, so I have to think that this was a casting mistake. Unlike the movie "The Age of Innocence", when you could feel sorry for the main characters because they were trapped in a society that distorted their lives, I ended up feeling that all of her "friends" were better off without Lily Bart... I gave it 3 stars because it looks so good, and because I thought that the director was successful in doing what he wanted, although I suspect that he didn't do justice to the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling story, wooden portrayal
Review: The strength of this film is its story--but honestly, the advice that should follow from this conclusion, and from this particular adaptation of this story, is to go buy the book. Merchant/Ivory this is not--the direction is pedestrian, lacking any of the sweep and flow of the M/I period productions, and the acting is sub-par. The cast, with a few exceptions, are painfully not at home in this idiom--unnatural performances and stilted, almost comically overannunciated delivery are the norm. (We get the point--these were stiff, formal folk--but even Titanic did a better job of getting its Victorian uppercrusters to seem authentic.) Gillian Anderson is simply miscast, and Stolz is unfortunately wooden. Still, the story is compelling in spite of these cinematic shortcomings, and the film never lost my interest. Its message is powerful and touching; its characters (as written by Wharton) compelling. But this movie is a two-dimensional cut-out, hardly even worth a rental fee.
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