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Washington Sqaure

The movie Washington Sqaure was based on the book Washington Square.

Which one did you like better, the movie or the book?  There are 3 votes for the book, and 3 votes for the movie.

Movie details for Washington Sqaure

The movie was released in 1997 and directed by Agnieszka Holland, who also directed The Secret Garden (1993) and Third Miracle (1999). Washington Sqaure was produced by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. More information on the movie is available on Amazon.com and also IMDb.

Actors on this movie include Jennifer Jason Leigh, Albert Finney, Maggie Smith, Ben Chaplin, Judith Ivey, Arthur Laupus, Jennifer Garner, Robert Stanton (II), Betsy Brantley, Nancy Daly, Sara Ruzicka, Rachel Layne Sacrey, Rachel Osborne, Scott Jaeck, Peter Maloney, Lauren Hulsey, Sara Constance Marshall, Marissa Anna Muro, Loretto McNally and Eva Jean Berg.

 

Read More About This Movie

In biographies written before 1990, Jennifer Jason Leigh claims to have been born in 1958. Recently, she's changed that to 1962. In either case, she definitely looks a bit odd in this 1998 release playing a 20-year-old opposite the youthful Ben Chaplin. E... Read More
In biographies written before 1990, Jennifer Jason Leigh claims to have been born in 1958. Recently, she's changed that to 1962. In either case, she definitely looks a bit odd in this 1998 release playing a 20-year-old opposite the youthful Ben Chaplin. Even stranger is the fact that she's been cast as the ugly girl; after all, she was voted one of America's 10 most beautiful women by Harper's Bazaar. Still, this film captures to a T the Henry James novel on which it is based. The story concerns Catherine Sloper, a 19th-century heiress whose father disapproves of the man she loves. In a twisty plot, questions are raised about both her father's and her suitor's motives, and Catherine must untangle the connections between love and money. This provides fodder for Henry James's critiques of the shallowness and sexism of his society. Some find James's work stiff, self-important, and a bit dull, while others see him as the most astute social critic of his time, so your enjoyment of this film may be a matter of taste. But it's definitely a period piece done right, which is to say that it fully captures its era, and never stoops to anachronisms that would interrupt the viewer's sense of an older, crueler world. --James DiGiovanna

Book details for Washington Square

Washington Square was written by Henry James. The book was published in 2004 by Signet Classics. More information on the book is available on Amazon.com.

Henry James also wrote Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Golden Bowl (1904), The Turn of the Screw (1915) and The Bostonians (1945).

  

Read More About This Book

With a new afterword by Michael Cunningham What Catherine Sloper lacks in brains and beauty, she makes up for by being "very good." The handsome Morris Townsend would do anything to win her hand-even if it means pretending that he loves the homely ingénu... Read More
With a new afterword by Michael Cunningham

What Catherine Sloper lacks in brains and beauty, she makes up for by being "very good." The handsome Morris Townsend would do anything to win her hand-even if it means pretending that he loves the homely ingénue, and cares nothing for her opulent wealth.