The Scarlet Letter * (1995, Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, Robert Duvall) – Classic Movie Review 2948

Director Roland Joffe’s 1995 drama stars Demi Moore as Hester Prynne, the mother of an illegitimate child in 17th-century Puritan-ruled New England. Gary Oldman also stars as the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the preacher.

Refusing to reveal the identity of her child’s father (who is the preacher), she is made to wear a scarlet ‘A’ for adulteress so that the whole community can see.

A miscast Moore is forlorn and totally at a loss as Hester Prynne in another dud remake of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, which takes terrible liberties with the original source material and features many mishandled scenes and a collection of out-of-place actors.

It also stars Robert Duvall, Robert Prosky, Edward Hardwicke, Joan Plowright, Lisa Joliffe-Andoh, Roy Dotrice, Malcolm Storry, Tim Woodward and Dana Ivey – so it has plenty of star power.

With a screenplay by Douglas Day Stewart, this Scarlet Letter is nothing to write home about and is one that the actors and director plus any viewers will probably be glad to forget. Ignominiously, this career-damaging item wasn’t shown to the critics in Britain.

Also in the cast are James Bearden, Amy Wright, Larissa Laskin, George Aguilar, Joan Gregson, Diane Salinger, Jocelyn Cunningham, Francie Swift, Eric Schweig, Kristin Fairlie, Sarah Campbell and Judd Jones.

Curiously the 1934 version also starred an actress named Moore – Colleen Moore. And there’s also a famous silent movie version with Lillian Gish.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2948

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