Rating: 
Summary: Hip to Be Square
Review: 19th century master Henry James almost always focused his keen, detailed eye on the upper crust and their stubborn efforts to keep their status.What sets this work apart from other recent period gabfests is the moxy of its heroine. She doesn't just fall in love; she develops a real backbone and character. As portrayed by Jennifer Jason Leigh in one of her most vivid performances, Catherine Sloper is a plain thing. She's unambitious and rather garish in taste. She clings to papa, an even-tempered doctor played with the usual prowess by Albert Finney. When Catherine meets Morris Townsend, a stud with nothing but cobwebs in his wallet, she's smitten, and so is he. Wait a minute. Hunks aren't supposed to like dopes like Catherine. Except if there's a possible payoff. Drop Jane Austen from your list. She's surface. The tough stuff is written by James. Washington Square isn't a chess match with human pieces; nor is it a cutesy, cuddly dating game played out in English manors. It's Americana, boys and girls. And, in the end, it has the courage of its dramatic convictions. Hooray!
Rating:
Summary: Circles Around Other Henry James's "Squares"
Review: A young heiress, plain as oatmeal and with a personality that's equally bland, meets a handsome but impecunious young man at a party in New York City in the 1850s. He begins courting her. Although he has neither a job nor especially bright prospects, she soon returns his ardent declarations. Is he really smitten with her, or is he the fortune hunter her domineering physician father and everyone else suspect him to be? This is the surefire plot that has kept readers turning the pages of Henry James's penetrating novella Washington Square since it was published in the early 1880s. It works again here. This latest film version of James's book (an earlier movie, The Heiress, with Olivia de Havilland, appeared in 1949) is, if not transcendent, at least more successful and blessedly shorter than the Jamesian excursion Portrait of a Lady. Unlike Portrait director Jane Campion, Washington Square director Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa) sticks close to her source material, concentrating on the main players and their nasty but oh-so-decorous machinations. As the heiress, Leigh is heartbreakingly good. You can practically see her straighten up as, in learning to think for herself, she gains a backbone. Finney is both scary and compelling as her interfering father, Smith is a flibbertigibbety delight as her widowed aunt, and Chaplin (The Truth About Cats and Dogs) does what he can with the problematically ambiguous role of the suitor. Amazing adaptation with brilliance and verve.
Rating: 
Summary: Perfectly played by all, staying true to the novel
Review: As a great fan of Henry James, I much preferred this new film version of his story, rather than "The Heiress," whether that film is considered a classic or not. Other critics on this page have panned the new version, writing that it lacks subtlety, but what is so subtle about Morris bashing on the Slopers' front door and yelling at the top of his lungs, which is what happens in "The Heiress"--and certainly does NOT happen in the novel. For me, Jennifer Jason Leigh more closely captured the clumsiness, social awkwardness, and sensitivity of the novel's main character, more so than Olivia de Havilland's woman of steel out for revenge. The cast of the older film are all fine actors, but the screenplay was the clumsy one there. The cast of the newer Washington Square are all pitch-perfect, as if they had lifted their characters directly from the novel. Maggie Smith is truly amazing in her comic role as the aunt.
Rating:
Summary: Perfectly played by all, staying true to the novel
Review: As a great fan of Henry James, I much preferred this new film version of his story, rather than "The Heiress," whether that film is considered a classic or not. Other critics on this page have panned the new version, writing that it lacks subtlety, but what is so subtle about Morris bashing on the Slopers' front door and yelling at the top of his lungs, which is what happens in "The Heiress"--and certainly does NOT happen in the novel. For me, Jennifer Jason Leigh more closely captured the clumsiness, social awkwardness, and sensitivity of the novel's main character, more so than Olivia de Havilland's woman of steel out for revenge. The cast of the older film are all fine actors, but the screenplay was the clumsy one there. The cast of the newer Washington Square are all pitch-perfect, as if they had lifted their characters directly from the novel. Maggie Smith is truly amazing in her comic role as the aunt.
Rating: 
Summary: don't waste your time
Review: Evidently this movie is based on a book. I have not read this book. Hopefully it's better than the movie. The movie is horrible. Do not waste your time watching it, it will leave a bad taste in your mouth. It's very depressing and Albert Finney's character is a jack*** and so is Morris. No happy ending and no finality. Yuck, yuck, yuck.
Rating: 
Summary: I kept waiting for something (anything) to happen!
Review: Extremely dull and boring adaptation of the Novel. Very poor casting for Catherine. The remaining actors did seem to fit their roles. The costuming and settings were very good to excellent. However the premise and theme of "He only wants you for your inheritance", was so repetitious that it made it hard to stomach the full two hours.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, my God! What happened with Henry James!!!!!!
Review: Frankly, my dear, this is a disappointed adaptation of Henry James superb novel. I can't forget "The Heiress", starring the incredible Olivia de Havilland. Jennifer Jason Leigh, one of the finest actresses of her generation, it is not the best selection for Catherine Sloper role. And Agnieszca Holland don't understand any word about the old New Yorkers.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing remake which should not have been
Review: Having both read the Henry James novel whence comes the title, if little else, of this film, and been charmed by the original adaptation "The Heiress", I was interested to see what a new interpretation might betoken: little of merit, I'm, sad to say. Where the original( both novel and film) had subtlety and depth of characterization, this one was blatant with actors following simple-minded leitmotifs. Where the original expressed the nobility and honor befitting the era, this one offered one-dimensional soap-operaish travesties. The new Katherine is such a clumsy fool, literally stumbling and falling down in almost every scene) lacking the wit to finish a sentence, that one doesn't empathize with her so much as pity her as being something of a retarded mutation. The new Morris is not much better. The new Dr. Sloper is uniformly heartless and completely lacking in the severe dignity with which James provided him. This film lacking intelligence, tries to overwhelm us with maudlin sentiment -- it fails to an embarassing degree. The depth of feeling rendered in the original is lost here. JJL simply lacks the finesse of Olivia de Havilland, although she seems remarkably well-rehearsed in her many pratfalls. Albert Finney seems a brute in comparison with the elegant Ralph Richardson. Anyone who watches both films will see what I mean. Five stars for the outstanding film "The Heiress". Two stars for this one is being generous.
Rating:
Summary: Very Dissapointed
Review: Having read the novel "Washington Square" and seen the wonderful film adaption, "The Heiress", I was so dissapointed in this adaption. The acting leaves a lot to be desired. I feel that when something is good, you should leave it alone, and obviously the producers of this adaption haven't learned that. If you have read "Washington Square" or seen "The Heiress" I think you will dissapointed as well.
Rating:
Summary: Very Dissapointed
Review: Having read the novel "Washington Square" and seen the wonderful film adaption, "The Heiress", I was so dissapointed in this adaption. The acting leaves a lot to be desired. I feel that when something is good, you should leave it alone, and obviously the producers of this adaption haven't learned that. If you have read "Washington Square" or seen "The Heiress" I think you will dissapointed as well.
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