Review: The Winslow Boy

Save the Winslow Boy! In 1908, a 13-year-old cadet by the name of George Archer-Shee was accused of stealing, forging another's name to and cashing a five shilling postal note. The cadet's father sought to get satisfaction and unsoil his son's reputation but his efforts to bring the case to court were thwarted at almost every point.

Decades later, the incident inspired playwright Terrence Rattigan (The Browning Version, Separate Tables) to write The Winslow Boy, which was brought to the screen in 1950 by esteemed director Anthony Asquith. Nearly half a century later, it resurfaces onscreen once more courtesy of David Mamet, who crafts an immaculately meticulous work of intelligentsia, based in part on the conceit that a courtroom drama may be done without including the usual courtroom interludes.

As in Rattigan's play, the facts are essentially the same. Ronnie Winslow (Guy Edwards) returns home from the Naval College at Osbourne. The reason for his premature arrival dissembles his family. He has been accused of taking a five shilling postal note from a friend's locker, signing his name to the note and cashing it. Though the postal clerk claims all the cadets look the same to her, she fingers Ronnie without a doubt in her mind. Thus is he expelled.

The Winslow patriarch, Arthur (Nigel Hawthorne), speaks to his son alone. Did he take the postal note? The boy denies it. The father asks the question a second time. "If you tell me a lie, I shall know it, because a lie between you and me can't be hidden," Arthur says. Ronnie denies it a second time. Believing his son's innocence, Arthur throws all his energies and finances behind bringing his son's case to court. All is done for the cause of saving the Winslow boy and the family members fall one by one as sacrifices.

The first to topple is Dickie (Matthew Pidgeon), an admitted dilettante who gallantly gives up his Oxford education. Then there's Catherine (Rebecca Pidgeon), the headstrong Suffragette whose engagement to John Watherstone (Aden Gillett) is threatened by the ever-growing notoriety of her younger brother's case. Then there is Arthur himself, who grows ever weaker as his health deteriorates. Their last hope is Sir Robert Morton (Jeremy Northam), a well-known barrister whose opposing stance on women's suffrage provokes Catherine.

The Winslow Boy is excellently acted by all parties involved. Pidgeon (Mamet's wife) is more polished here than she was in their previous collaboration, The Spanish Prisoner. Perhaps Catherine is a role that better suits her personality and temperament. Hawthorne is marvelous -- his calm gravitas is the jewel in the film's crown. He manages to intimidate without so much as speaking above a whisper. If you find the first half of the film to be a slow go, then bide your time until the dashing Mr. Northam makes his appearance. Silkily handsome, naturally seductive, his Morton is all arrogant aplomb. In many ways, Morton is similar to his previous role as Emma's Mr. Knightley: a self-assured man who is bemused and ultimately disarmed by a woman slightly ahead of her time.

Yet Morton is different. He is more ruthless. In his questioning of Ronnie, he flusters the boy and Ronnie entangles himself. Morton conducts the interrogation without formalities or bedside manner -- just coolly, acutely and almost cavalierly. Northam hits every note the playwright wrote, all the while steeping the role with a star presence.

Mamet directs with his prickly precision -- the rhythm is steady with moments of cutting emotional jabs. Call it a civilization of his fluid gangster machismo. It's almost strange, really, how The Winslow Boy sneaks up on you. Two hours pass by -- sure you're intrigued but not necessarily entranced by all the goings-on -- but you watch and absorb and suddenly you're impacted with the brilliance of the film. The costumes may not look Mamet but the end effect -- the feeling that you've been played by a master -- is the same.

The Winslow Boy

Directed by: David Mamet

Written by: David Mamet; based on the play by Terrence Rattigan

Starring: Nigel Hawthorne, Rebecca Pidgeon, Jeremy Northam, Gemma Jones, Guy Edwards, Matthew Pidgeon, Aden Gillett