MOVIE REVIEW : ‘House’: Wry, Delightful English Comedy

“The Summer House” (Westside Pavilion, Monica 4-Plex, Sunset 5), a wry and delightful British comedy, has much the appeal of “Enchanted April” in that it shows to advantage an array of formidable actresses, but it’s less talky and it’s lots livelier, and best of all, it boasts Jeanne Moreau in an all-too-rare starring role.

Cast as a flamboyant half-English, half-Egyptian femme fatale of a “certain age” with flaming red hair and a Norma Desmond wardrobe, Moreau is the exotic Lili, who descends upon Croydon, a staid London suburb, circa 1959. The occasion is the impending wedding of the daughter, Margaret (Lena Headey), of her lifelong friend Monica (Julie Walters).

Margaret is to marry the considerably older Syl (David Threlfall), who lives next door and whose elderly mother, Mrs. Monro (Joan Plowright), proves unexpectedly to be a boon companion to the worldly, hard-drinking Lili. Everyone is glad to see the uninhibited Lili--even her ne’er-do-well painter ex-husband (John Wood)--but it doesn’t take long for her to figure out that the lovely Margaret doesn’t love the homely Syl, an obtuse jerk; even his mother thinks Margaret would be miserable married to him.

Whether or not Margaret will go through with her glum marriage is of course the big question, but the real purpose of Martin Sherman’s adaptation of Alice Thomas Ellis’ novel “The Clothes in the Wardrobe” is to provide three juicy roles for three veteran actresses, who glow under Waris Hussein’s unobtrusive, briskly paced direction.

The film’s biggest success is to make it conceivable that Lili should have such staunch friendships with such conventional women as Monica and Mrs. Monro. The reason is simple and lifelike: the glamorous, outrageous Lili brightens the other women’s drab lives, and Lili, in turn, for all her gaudiness and theatricality, is a wise, philosophical woman capable of valuing her old friends.

The three women are as well-drawn as they are well-played. Monica may be dowdy and blind to the folly of her daughter’s impending marriage, but she’s a kind, likable woman. The way Walters plays her she’s entirely nice beneath an armor of propriety. Mrs. Monro may be an old lady, but she’s a shrewd, perceptive woman, much more a soul-mate to Lili. Plowright brings out Mrs. Monro’s astringent quality, and it’s sheer pleasure to hear her grand, bemused delivery of a line as innocuous as “Shall we risk the trifle?”

With her Lili more Tallulah Bankhead than Bette Davis, to whom she is so often compared, Moreau is as radiant, sensual and witty as ever. What’s so endearing about Lili is that she may be Auntie Mame-ish, but she’s not a bully; she reaches out to Margaret but doesn’t tell her how to live her life.

As for Margaret, she’s decidedly the movie’s mystery. For one thing, she experiences constant dreams about a handsome young man (Padraic Casey) with whom she fell in love during a recent trip to Egypt. There’s more to Margaret, so appealingly played by Headey, than we at first realize. As a result, there’s more to “The Summer House” as well.

*

‘The Summer House’

Jeanne Moreau: Lili

Joan Plowright: Mrs. Monro

Julie Walters: Monica

Lena Headey: Margaret

A Samuel Goldwyn release of a BBC Films production. Director Waris Hussein. Producer Norma Heyman. Executive producer Mark Shivas. Screenplay by Martin Sherman; from the novel “The Clothes in the Wardrobe” by Alice Thomas Ellis. Cinematographer Rex Maidment. Editor Ken Pearce. Costumes Odile Dicks-Mireaux. Music Stanley Myers. Production designer Stuart Walker. Sound John Pritchard. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Times-rated Mature. Adult themes and situations; some sex and violence.