I wrote this two years ago next month:
The Winslow Boy is a new movie written and directed by David Mamet. On the surface, it will shock Mamet fans, because the subject matter has little in common with other films and plays in the Mamet canon. The Winslow Boy takes place in pre-WWI England, and concerns whether a boy was wrongly expelled from his military school, and his family's efforts to vindicate him.
Based on this synopsis, the media has called this "Mamet's Merchant-Ivory film." Looks can be deceiving. The Winslow Boy is about courage, honor and justice. While it may be the first Mamet chick-flick, it is a deceptively macho tale of struggle and sacrifice.
The Winslow Boy has terrific dialogue, and fine acting by the three leads (Jeremy Northam, Nigel Hawthorne and Mamet's wife, Rebecca Pidgeon). There is also great period flavor and an eye for detail. The directing is fluid but subtle, Mamet giving his audience a lot of credit for being able to read between the lines.
The Winslow Boy is also an in-your-face to the critics who have complained that Mamet can't write about women. The Winslow Boy features one of the best female characters in recent years, the title character's sister. This character, played by Pidgeon, actually speaks the line "You don't know very much about women." In many ways, The Winslow Boy is a rebuttal of that statement.
For some reason, films directed by David Mamet (House of Games, The Spanish Prisoner) or made from Mamet scripts (The Edge, Glengary Glen Ross) do not always fare particularly well at the Box Office. Yet, these same films seem to find growing popularity on video and cable. House of Games and Glengary Glen Ross are probably more popular now than ever before (even though Siskel and Ebert raved about House of Games). Although a very different type movie, The Winslow Boy will probably age pretty well. I recommend it highly.
