Beautifully photographed, scripted, and acted, The Widow of Saint-Pierre pits individual responsibility, redemption, and forgiveness against pettifogging, career-hugging minions of France's shaky Second Republic. Set in 1849, on a group of tiny islands off Newfoundland -- France's last bastion in North America -- the film draws us in with the earthiness of the locals, the stops-out independence of a military captain and his beautiful wife, and the quizzical behavior of a condemned man. It carries us to the conclusion on the strength of the drama, a familiar one of enlightened values endangered, of modernity oppressed. Although the costumes are lovely, it is not remotely a costume drama or a feminine romance. This is the Dreyfus Affair, a half century before the fact. Ten out of ten.
Review of Widow of St. Pierre
