They dared to play the game of love, faith, and chance.
1997-12-31
$16.0M
132 min
After a childhood of abuse by his evangelistic father, misfit Oscar Hopkins becomes an Anglican minister and develops a divine obsession with gambling. Lucinda Leplastrier is a rich Australian heiress shopping in London for materials for her newly acquired glass factory back home. Deciding to travel to Australia as a missionary, Oscar meets Lucinda aboard ship, and a mutual obsession blossoms. They make a wager that will alter each of their destinies.
This is a wonderfully good looking film with two strong performances from Ralph Fiennes ("Hopkins") and Cate Blanchett ("Lucinda"). The former is a bit of a loner being raised by his rather puritanical Pentecostal father. He absconds into the care of Anglican "Stratton" (Tom Wilkinson) who arranges for him to obtain an university education. Thing is, this brightly red haired lad doesn't really fit in, and is soon far more focussed on his rather effective system of gambling. Meantime, the latter, an Australian, has inherited a substantial fortune and invested it in a glass making factory (glass still being a bit of a luxury in 1850s Australia). When the two meet on a boat they realise that their isolation from society at large (and their fondness for a turn at the cards) gives them plenty in common and their relationship burgeons. When the two come up with a fairly outrageous wager between them - that they can build a church entirely of glass and ship it up-country to the remote town inhabited by preacher "Hassett" (Ciarán Hinds) the adventure elements hot up a little. The problem for me here, is that though the film looks lovely - and plenty of attention to detail has been payed to the costumes and general aesthetic, the story is really pretty weak. It tries to tackle issues of lonesomeness, religious bigotry and of the somewhat un-emancipated role of women in both Britain and Australia at the time, but somehow the thing never quite catches fire. It is paced very gently, and there are just too many characters to try to keep track of - the focus meanders a little too much, and the ending didn't make too much sense to me. I did quite enjoy watching it, and Blanchett is on good form - but I don't know that I would bother again.
