Rattaya Nimibutr
Staff Writer
Review
I must admit, I first thought this movie was going to be another costume drama that would go straight to the dollar houses in two weeks. Boy was I wrong. Dangerous Beauty is a passionate and worthy love story that shouldn't be ignored.
Set in Venice during the 1600s, Dangerous Beauty unfolds as a true story of revenge, desire, redemption and, most of all, power.
Veronica Franco (Catherine McCormack, Mel Gibson/ William Wallace's ill-fated wife in Braveheart) lives in a society in which women are treated like property and possess few rights. Despite those expectations, she captivates the sensuous hearts of men and the fates of women.
Rufus Sewell (Dark City) plays her handsome aristocrat-of-choice Marco Venier, who cannot marry Veronica due to her penniless condition and questionable family.
"It's not about heart," he tells her. "It's about politics."
Spurred by that heartbroken fact, Veronica's mother Paola (Jacqueline Bisset), a former courtesan herself, trains her daughter to become one of Venice's infamous yet highly regarded exotic companions favored by the city's richest and most powerful men.
With her seductive passion and intelligence in poetry, Veronica's beauty has forceful men revolve around her as Marco watches on, himself being forced to marry another woman.
Dangerous Beauty catapults the audience into the world in which Veronica seduces and uses her humor. Meanwhile, Marco's cousin Maffio (Oliver Platt) insinuates himself into Veronica's world and exacts revenge on her, introducing her witchcraft as the cause of Venice's invasion of the black plague.
This heartwarming yet deceitful drama has another side, where the courtesan's devoted friend and sister of Marco, Beatrice (Moira Kelly), desires Veronica's world of liberty and festivity while she is trapped within the expectations of a married woman. She asks Veronica to train her daughter to become one of them.
"Though my cage is bigger than yours," says the courtesan in defense, "it's still a cage."
Dangerous Beauty is well written, entertains the audience with amusing dialogue and is definitely for those who like to recite quotes from movies.
Also starring Fred Ward (Henry & June) as one of the most effective men in Venice, Domencio Venier, Dangerous Beauty allows you to ride through the high society life of an extraordinary woman.
Directed by Marshall Herskovitz (Family) with costumes designed by the award-winning Gabriella Pescucci ( The Age of Innocence), this passionate film is powerful in its own establishment.