Widow's Peak

PG	Rottentomatoes.com Rating:100%	1994
(Thematic elements, mild language, some sensuality, smoking)	Picky Flicks Quote: "A diverting and well-acted English film with just the right mix of comedy and mystery." -Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice	RUNTIME: 1hr. 41 mins.
Visit:www.screenit.com for complete details		Movie Mood: Suspicious

Widow's Peak is an English murder-mystery comedy that features an Englishwoman affecting an American accent and an American woman lisping in an Irish brogue. Things, as they say, are not what they seem. And it ain’t just the funky accents.

The title, Widow's Peak, refers to a particular bit of land in the beautiful Irish hamlet of Kilshannon on which resides a community of wealthy women who’ve had at least one husband kick the can. It’s an exclusive little club whose undisputed leader is Mrs. Doyle-Counihan (heaven help you if you don’t use both her names). As the stuffy, filthy-rich matriarch, Joan Plowright steals scene after scene from her able castmates.

Perhaps the oddest member of the widows' society Miss O’Hare (Mia Farrow), a penniless, dowdy little spinster who is accepted because she has no husband although she cannot truly belong. After all, you’ve got to get a man in the first place before he can up and die on you. Still, she’s not without her prospects. The local dentist (the always enjoyable Jim Broadbent in one of the movie’s scarce male roles; it is called widow's peak, after all) seems to have a sweet tooth for her. Too bad he’s not sickly.

The long-established order of things is upset when Edwina Broome (Natasha Richardson), a young, beautiful American war widow slinks her way into the tiny village and immediately begins stirring male hearts and ruffling female feathers. Mrs. Doyle-Counihan’s already tight-fisted grip on Godfrey, her adult only child, squeezes into an iron-fisted clench when Edwina showers the sheltered man-child—who happens to be the town’s youngest and most solvent bachelor—with her silky-voiced attentions.

Still, despite Mrs. Doyle-Counihan’s disapproval of Edwina’s modern ways (smoking, wearing bright lipstick, driving her own motorcar!), it’s Miss O’Hare that develops an instant dislike for the sultry newcomer. In fact, practically no sooner has Edwina arrived than Miss O’Hare is convinced that the American is out to kill her. At first, no one takes the slightly batty old maid seriously—at least not until Edwina almost runs her over with a boat. An accident, of course.

Still, what is the glamorous, free-spirited younger woman doing in a tiny town run by biddies and steeped in ritual? And why, if she values her privacy at all, does she knowingly hire the town’s most accomplished rumor-spreader as her maid? These and other questions bubble to the surface amidst the back-stabbing, gossip, and speculation that abound in a society dominated by women.

In the movie’s final scenes, secrets are revealed and motives explained, but, as satisfying (if not entirely unexpected) as the surprise twists are, the journey to discovering them is infinitely more so. Each of the principle actresses sinks her teeth into her role with relish, and although this is a light-hearted movie with few serious intentions, the weightiness of the actors’ commitments to their parts is enough to carry both the drama and the comedy of the film.

Whether you're single, married, widowed, or other, give Widow's Peak a chance. It just might improve your life expectancy. Laughter does, I'm told.

Until next Wednesday, stay picky! Your mind will thank you later.