THE INHERITANCE
Starring: Cari Shayne, Brigid Brannagh, Thomas Gibson, Meredith Baxter, Tom Conti
Original Airdate: 1997
Type: Historical Romance
What intially attracted me to The Inheritance was the fact that it was based on a "lost" Louisa May Alcott novel. I'm a fan of Alcott's Little Women, so I thought okay, I'll check this movie out.
I think I now know why the novel was lost.
But really... how does a novel become "lost," anyway? Was this one of Louisa's last novels -- she wrote it, never got to really revise it -- and then she kicked the bucket? Or perhaps this is one she tried to publish and no one would take it. "Where's the spark we saw in Little Women?" the publishers demanded. A once-praised authoress, doomed to dismality in her sunset years.
Oh, here we go: "In 1996 yet another manuscript was unearthed; it contained Alcott's very first novel, written for young people, entitled The Inheritance and composed in 1849 when the author was 18."*
Okay, that explains it.
It must really suck to be a famous writer and have someone find your early work... the stuff you knew was too silly/crappy to be published... and publish it without asking you. Not that they could've asked a woman who'd died over 100 years before, but still. Common courtesy, here.
While I enjoyed the movie for the most part -- namely because I'm a fan of the era in which it was set (the costumes! the customs! the cute gentlemen upon noble steeds! yeah, all that) -- it was very cliched and predictable. Uncanny coincidences galore. But looking past all that, it's kind of cute.
Edith Adelon has spent her life serving the Hamilton family and being a companion to Amy Hamilton, a girl her age. Now that she is an adult, Amy is ready to start looking for a husband, and Edith fears that she will no longer be needed. A relative of the Hamiltons, Ida, comes to stay with the Hamiltons for the summer, and she, too, is looking for a match. Send in the men!
First we have James Percy. Before he arrives to visit the Hamiltons, the women discuss him. They talk about how unattractive he is. Edith, the ever-wise, asserts that character is more important than looks. Which would be a totally worthy message, if not for the fact that when James Percy comes on screen a few minutes later, he's played by Thomas Gibson. Thomas freaking Gibson, who is all kinds of adorable and attractive. Are they kidding? So yeah, that didn't work for me.
Then we have Frederick Arlington, also dashing and handsome, but who turns out to be kind of a Cal Hockley. He gets owned by James after trying to come on to Edith a liiittle too strong. Scandalous, indeed.
And Edith, the lowly servant who has fallen head over poofy skirts for James Percy, finds out that she's really Amy's cousin and worthy of a higher social status. I don't feel I'm really spoiling anything by divulging this plot point, because anyone with half a brain who's watching the movie will see THAT one coming from a mile and a half away.
It's not a bad story, just weak. Definitely not Louisa May's best. But it does prove that we all have to start somewhere. And it reminds us that if you're about to die, you should probably find a way to destroy your early work so that people can't profit off it down the road. Or maybe The Inheritance's eventual publication wouldn't have upset Miss Alcott. Maybe now she's looking down on us from the great beyond, chuckling to herself and going "I can't believe they made a movie out of that sh-t. Suckers!"
Despite everything, it wasn't a bad way to spend 93 minutes.
7/23/2006
(c)2006 AlligatorJuice.com
*Source: http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/Alcott,+Louisa+May
