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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
Writer Harold Pinter (Betrayal) and director Karel Reisz (Isadora) take an experimental spin with John Fowles's magnificent novel set in Victorian England, and come up with something puzzling. Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep play the forbidden lovers in Fowles's story, but in a parallel story line they also play contemporary actors performing those characters in a movie production and having an affair of their own during off-hours. Got that? Considering that Fowles himself presents alternative endings in his novel, something equally eccentric is called for here. But little is accomplished by this intertwining of a fictional past and present, and the opportunity to do justice to a great story is lost. On the plus side, Irons and Streep are instantly striking as a natural couple on screen, and their presence makes watching this film easy enough despite the larger problems. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Story Within A Story Concept Works Beautifully In This Film
This 1981 film version of a famous novel by John Fowles from a few years earlier stars Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons at the height of their youthful attractiveness if not their fame. Streep plays the dual roles of Sarah and Anna. Sarah is the title character, a young Victorian woman whose life has seemingly been ruined by her relationship with a Frenchman who abandoned her. Anna is the modern American actress who portrays her and who is involved in an affair with her costar, Mike, despite them ... Read More
Rating: - TWO FOR ONE
This movie has been around for a long time now but I just happened to see it the other night. It was on one of those late night movie channels and well worth staying up for. You really got two good stories in one. ( you will have to watch the movie to understand what I mean ) Meryl, was her usual great self so if you enjoy her work and have not yet seen this movie, you should.
Rating:  - A classic
I saw this in the original release -- then I got to go to England, to Lyme Regis, to walk on the Cobb in a misty rain -- and it was magic. And so is this film. If you've read John Fowles' novel, you know what a challenge it was to make the film version. But, thanks to Harold Pinter, and everyone involved with the making of this film, most especially Streep and Irons, it remains a masterpiece!
Rating: - oldy but goody
This is an old movie but still love it all the same.
Well cast, great UK scenary etc, worth a look at.
Rating: - Emotionally powerful
The French Lieutenant's Woman tells two stories, the story of two lovers in the Victorian age (the biologist Charles played by Jeremy Irons and the outcast Sarah played by Meryl Streep) whose story are being filmed. The two married actors playing the roles of Charles and Sarah, Mike (Irons) and Anna (Streep) are also having an affair during the shooting of the film, thereby giving subtle commentary/enlightenment on the story of the Victorian lovers.
It is emotionally very powerful, as ... Read More
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