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The Winslow Boy

1 disc
Region 1 USA/CA (info)

Based on an actual trial that created a media frenzy in WWI-era London, THE WINSLOW BOY might have been conceived as a standard courtroom drama. Instead, director David Mamet (working from the play by Terence Rattigan) focuses on a family pushed to the limit by its fight for justice. The trouble begins when Ronnie Winslow (Guy Edwards), a 13-year-old naval cadet, is accused of, and subsequently expelled for, stealing a five-shilling postal order. The boy's father, Arthur (Nigel Hawthorne), believes his son's protestations of innocence and sets in motion an expensive fight against the immense bureaucratic machinery of the crown. The expense and publicity imperil the family--costing Arthur's suffragette daughter, Catherine, a suitor, for example--even as the case becomes a national cause clbre. The story captures a period of intense social change; charts an early example of the "media trial"; and asks the very human question, What is one's good name worth? Excellent performances abound in the film, especially from Jeremy Northam as the charismatic lawyer Sir Robert Morton; and Mamet's wife, Rebecca Pidgeon, as Catherine.
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 04057
Credits

Nigel Hawthorne, Jeremy Northam, Rebecca Pidgeon, Gemma Jones
Critic Reviews

"...WINSLOW BOY triumphs in giving several superb actors an intelligent, unobtrusive setting..."
Variety
Ranked #9 in Rolling Stone's "Ten Best Movies of 1999"
Rolling Stone
"...[A] surprisingly faithful adaptation..."
Sight and Sound
"...A drama of wicked subtlety and moral finesse..." -- Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly
"...A precisely calibrated war of nerves in which truth and deceit are all-important....[Pidgeon] bristles most effectively and plays Catherine with strong presence and a sharp, lucid edge..."
New York Times
"...Brilliant dialogue....Mamet's script clips along at such a rate, in fact, that just as one dazzling phrase or turn has barely registered, he's amazing you with another..."
Box Office
"...Absorbing....Keeping it going are the inherent appeal of sheer principle as a dramatic force and the performances..."
USA Today
"...A pointed examination of the price of seeking justice....Genteel moviemaking with modern overtones, THE WINSLOW BOY is especially good at the visual re-creation of its time..."
Los Angeles Times
"...There is a wonderful audacity in the way that the outcome of the case happens offscreen and is announced in an indirect manner....Mamet's characters are interesting precisely because of the reserve and detachment they bring to passion..."
Chicago Sun-Times