Video Review

The Governess (1999)

EW's GRADE
B+

Details Release Date: Feb 16, 1999; Movie Rated: R; Genres: Drama, Romance; With: Minnie Driver, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Tom Wilkinson; Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

At once snappy and stately, Sandra Goldbacher's painterly first film is set in 1840s Scotland and stars Driver as a Sephardic Jew who hides her identity to become governess to a Catholic family's daughter. And when she also takes care of the photographer father (Shakespeare in Love's Wilkinson) and sulky son (Rhys Meyers, of Velvet Goldmine), sexy entanglements ensue. Frisky, sensitive Driver allures as usual and — Farrelly brothers to the contrary and Happiness notwithstanding — The Governess features the year's wittiest semen joke. B+

Originally posted Feb 19, 1999 Published in issue #472-473 Feb 19, 1999 Order article reprints
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