The Governess
(1997)
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In 1840s London, Rosina's beloved father is killed, so she must take a job in order to keep her deeply religious Jewish family afloat. Choosing the new name of Mary Blackchurch, she accepts a job as a governess to a wealthy gentile family in Scotland. Her responsibility is to be the friend and teacher of the Cavendishes' young daughter, Clementina, a mean-spirited, spoiled child. Mary is much more interested in the work being done by Mr. Cavendish as he attempts to perfect an early form of photography. But working closely in the laboratory soon releases feelings that change their very different worlds. |
Oh dear. Someone laced the corsets far too tight for this rigid drama set in the mid-1840s, in which Jewish girl Minnie Driver pretends to be a gentile so she can earn money for her family working as a governess. Her plan works and she takes a job with the Cavendish family on a remote Scottish island. It's not long, of course, before her own undergarments are being tossed on the floor as she embarks on an affair with her stiff-upper-lipped married employer (The Full Monty's Tom Wilkinson) while also helping him with his scientific research in photography. Writer/director Sandra Goldbacher, while cleverly mixing the early images of photography with the growing relationship between the governess and her reluctant boss, never quite manages to convey any feeling of sensuality or passion between the apparently mis-matched pair.