The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
2h 4m | PG-13
The wife of an abusive criminal finds solace in the arms of a kind regular guest in her husband's restaurant.
Director: Peter Greenaway
Studio: Allarts
Genre: Crime, Drama
Video: 720p
Cast
Richard Bohringer
as Richard Boarst
Michael Gambon
as Albert Spica
Helen Mirren
as Georgina Spica
Alan Howard
as Michael
Tim Roth
as Mitchel
Ciarán Hinds
as Cory
Reviews
Having previously watched Greenaway's 'Prospero's Books', basically from the same era, one definitely gets a sense of the auteur, of great visualizing prowess in the Welsh native. I adore watching Helen Mirren from ANY era, but particularly here, in between the young adulthood beauty she displayed in Michael Powell's 'Age of Consent', through the remarkably absurd and audacious 'Caligula', straight to the sophisticated and very dangerous gorgeousness displayed in 'The Comfort of Strangers'. It's great to see any dude who's mean to a beautiful woman get their comeuppance (particularly the wealthy--it offers a sort of 'wish fulfillment' for the 99% of us), and the climax here is one of cinema's most articulate presentation of that phenomenon. It definitely made me wish to see the rest of both Greenaway's movies and of Mirren's performances. Well worth the acquired taste necessary for this sort of delicacy.