That relationship, more than the movie’s ham-handed historical fiction, is what makes the movie watchable. Their pairing makes this a look at two generations of actresses. In such early roles as “Ordinary People,” McGovern was the very ingénue that Richardson is now. Although her physical resemblance doesn’t go much farther than Brooks’s iconic hairstyle, she does well in a role that could have resonated with her other recent performances but feels underwritten.Īs the title indicates, “The Chaperone” is really about Norma and, thus, is more of a showcase for McGovern, a veteran actress well suited to play mentor. Here she has the burden of playing a real-life figure whom some audiences may be familiar with. Richardson has turned in terrific performances in such recent films as “Columbus” and “Support the Girls,” which reflected two very different career options for young women today: the creative life of an architect in the former, and the service industry in the latter. She, too, questions her future, unsure what to do about her unfaithful husband (Campbell Scott). Norma, who was adopted from a New York home for “friendless girls,” faces her past as she searches for her birthparents. The rebellious Louise naturally butts heads with her elder as she sets eyes on her future. Norma (Elizabeth McGovern) is an unhappily married woman who volunteers to accompany 15-year-old Louise (Haley Lu Richardson), whom she meets at a recital, from sleepy Wichita to New York City, where the teen has been enrolled in a prestigious dance school. Yet the intermittently effective drama that unfolds is as much about the contrast between the 1920s and 2019 as it is about the relationship between Brooks and her minder. The Downton Abbey movie will be released in cinemas worldwide this September.ĭownton Abbey: The Complete Collection DVD box set is available on Amazon.Based on Laura Moriarty’s best-selling 2012 novel, “The Chaperone” fictionalizes an episode in the life of silent movie star Louise Brooks. “It’s a story full of surprises-about who these women really are, and who they eventually become.”Īlso coming up in 2019, Downton creator Julian Fellowes has new ITV drama series Belgravia, the long-awaited Downton Abbey movie, Netflix drama series The English Game (exploring the origins of football in the late 1800s), NBC’s much-anticipated The Gilded Age series, an adaptation of Paul Torday’s novel The Girl On The Landing,and Rothschild banking dynasty drama Five Arrows. “Why does this utterly conventional woman do this? What happens to her when she lands in Manhattan with an unusually rebellious teenager as her ward? And, which of the two women is stronger, the uptight wife-and-mother or the irrepressible free spirit? “Norma Carlisle (Elizabeth McGovern), a local society matron who never broke a rule in her life, impulsively volunteers to accompany Louise (Haley Lu Richardson) to New York for the summer. “When the opportunity arises for her to go to New York to study with a leading dance troupe, her mother insists there be a chaperone. But, just a few years earlier, she was a 15 year-old student in Wichita, Kansas for whom fame and fortune were only dreams. The official synopsis for The Chaperone reads: “Louise Brooks, the 1920s silver screen sensation who never met a rule she didn’t break, epitomised the restless, reckless spirit of the Jazz Age. The Chaperonewill receive a limited cinema release on 29th March in Los Angeles and New York, before airing on Masterpiece on PBS at a later date. Laura Moriarty’s novel The Chaperone is available on Amazon. The movie also stars Campbell Scott, Victoria Hill, Geza Rohrig, Miranda Otto, Robert Fairchild and Blythe Danner. Having optioned the novel, she worked with Julian Fellowes to adapt the story. McGovern is a producer on the film as well. Joining the Downton reunion is American actress Elizabeth McGovern, best known as Lady Cora Grantham. The Chaperone is directed by Michael Engler, who recently finished directing the upcoming Downton Abbey movie. Set in the 1920’s, the first ever ever feature film from Masterpiece on PBS has been adapted from Laura Moriarty’s best-selling American novel by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. The first trailer has been unveiled for The Chaperone.
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