At the beginning, Lilia is a widower who is on her way to Italy with her companion, Caroline. There, she meets a young man and marries him. When she dies in childbirth, Caroline has the idea that the family should step up and raise the child, or she plans to do it herself. Mind that Lilia is only related to the family by marriage. But, their English sensibilities and pride push them to send Philip and Harriet as emissaries to purchase the child from his father.
I'm going to admit that this one was a head-scratcher for me. I had no idea who to root for. Was it Gino? He was abusive to Lilia and tried to bend her to his will. What about Lilia? She married on a whim and then tried to change her husband, pushing him around because she had the money. Then we had Harriet, who was purposely annoying. And then Caroline. She was confusing. I guess I was supposed to be picking up on her feelings for Gino the entire time, but I didn't. And why did she love him? Because he loved his son? Other than that, he wasn't much of a character. Then she just drops her bombshell when Philip wants to express his feelings. Philip was the closest thing to a likeable character, but he was denied a happy ending.
I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out why I didn't like it, because normally this kind of movie would be right up my alley. For some reason, I just couldn't find a person to like, and the story left a lot of questions at the end. I mean, who lets a woman kidnap a child and then get away with it? No consequences! Maybe the book was more comprehensive, but I'm not sure if I want to read it. I may give it a chance, hoping that the things I missed in the movie will be present in the book. I still liked Rupert Graves' acting, but other than that, I probably wouldn't watch this one again.
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