The Turn of the Screw (1999)

Jodhi May is the unnamed mistress in this fine adaptation of Henry James' novela. She's about perfect for the part of the virginal governess assigned to manage two young children and the country estate of a distant magnate who finds kids boring. She's not Deborah Kerr's frightened governess with the quavering voice in "The Innocents," but just as suitable. She has dark eyes that are liquid and perceptive, and two plump lips which are usually slightly open. This lends her features a slightly dazed look. Her movements are deliberate and her seraphic voice beneficent. She seems intent on bringing purity wherever she goes. May is quite attractive and she was educated at Oxford. I'm considering sending her a proposal of marriage. Well, after all, if she can't get the tycoon who hired her, why not get the next one that comes along? On the other hand, all that virtue -- I really like the character and the way James handled it -- just the right balance between corruption and madness. Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper, tries to help but she's illiterate and stuffy and has fixed ideas about the two children -- both of them are angels. Flora, the eight-year-old girl, is a cute blond out of Matisse. Miles, the ten-year-old boy who was just expelled from his boarding school for reasons never explained, is a handsome kid. Of course, if you believe the narrator, they're both pustular with unquiet spirits but then aren't they all? Over time, the two little angels start acting queer -- standing like stone statues in the garden at midnight, cleverly ambiguous answers to straightforward questions, kissing May fully on the lips, things like that. May becomes convinced that there are two evil spirits, Quint and his pregnant paramour, Miss Jessel, that are sneaking around and giving the kids lessons on debauchery. The ghosts are closing in. The problem is that, although the kids act suspiciously, no one has actually seen or admitted seeing any ghosts. The unimaginative Mrs. Gross begins to doubt that anything sinister is going on. And May begins to look even more batty than Deborah Kerr did.Then, by means of some anfractuous logic that I've never understood, May sends poor distressed Mrs. Grose and Flora off to London, saying, "Leave the boy with me." She informs the scullery maids that she alone is in charge now, "And I run a tight ship." Hmm. What is going on? Who's possessed around here -- and by what? Before confronting Miles that night, she kneels and prays for victory over the spirits, pointing out to God that it only takes one more turn of the screw for virtue to prevail. "With your aid, Lord, I'll wring it out of him." At that point I began to wonder if "The Turn of the Screw" didn't belong to a sub-genre that was popular around the turn of the century -- a post-Darwinist but pre-Freudian pitting of suppressed impulses against strict Victorian custom , rather like "Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde" or, more broadly, religion versus science.The climactic reveal reveals nothing much. The death isn't organic to the plot, and the main question -- is May nuts or are the kids evil? -- is left hanging.

The most daring thing about this adaptation of Henry James' classic tale is the way that stunning newcomer Jodhi May plays the ghost haunted governess as a living, breathing girl with flaws rather than a lifeless model of prim perfection. Deborah Kerr's interpretation in the earlier film version (titled THE INNOCENTS) was so cool and crisp that there was never any doubt that the governess would overcome the evil ghosts (and save the rotten children who serve them)through sheer icy self-control, pure virginity and stubborn virtue.Jodhi May's performance shows more psychological depth, depicting a governess who is menaced not only by the ghosts themselves but by her own voluptuous desires. Temptation surrounds the governess in this version, not only in the attentions of her devastatingly handsome employer (a stunning and very youthful Colin Firth) but also in the very comforts and luxuries of her position on the secluded estate.Watch the way she succumbs to the charms of Miles' piano playing in the film's climactic scene, not only losing track of the time but falling little by little into a deep, drugged sleep. The two children are both shown as being more alert, more aware, than the lovely governess, whose nights have been quite sleepless owing to both ghostly terrors and erotic dreams of her employer. During the piano scene, Jodhi May's shifting expression is worth watching closely, as her bewitching gray eyes sink from stern watchfulness to drooping weariness, an unwilling surrender every bit as haunted and erotic as her dreams. Note how the camera very knowingly cuts back and forth from the heavy eyes of the governess to the light fingers of Miles at the piano, his skill meant to suggest the feather-soft touch of a lover. There can be little doubt that this image suggests a woman who bears her crystal pure virginity not as a shining shield but as an exhausting burden. She wants to have her employer's hands touching her lightly and knowingly, drawing forth her full desires the way Miles draws exquisite melody from the piano. Her deep sleep leaves her at the mercy of the children, but it results from the adult strain of holding her own sensual desires at bay. What a rich, haunting story, and what an authentic, womanly performance from the beautiful Jodhi May!

With all due respect to flinty-but-dear Megs Jenkins (Mrs. Grose in both the 1961 "The Innocents" and the Lynn Redgrave made-for-TV Ben Bolt-directed rendering), Pam Ferris' housekeeper seems closest to the illiterate, fierce, none-too-genteel woman of James' story. Maybe it's her sheer size, but she grounds the story completely and serves as splendid contrast to the slim, neurasthenic Jodhi May as the Governess. No "The Innocents" (the only dramatization with a point of view), still, this "Turn" works pretty well and may have the best ever staging of Miles' death.

This TV production doesn't break any new ground in it's retelling of Henry James ghost story, but it's a nicely handled version all the same.The relatively unknown cast give good performances. Johdi May as the governess has just the right mix of shyness and repression and is attractive without being overly glamorous. The freudian aspects of the story are hinted at but are not overdone.As usual with a Masterpiece Theater production the production is superb and the English country house setting is beautiful.