Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX
Christoph Waltz in his directorial debut and starring as the obsequious, uxorious “Ulrich Mott” (loosely based on the murder of socialite Viola Herms Drath) validates, once again, his transformative powers; with chameleon aptness he imbues Mott’s pathological gallantry with slithering, scintillating charm; he convinced Washington Grand Dame, “Elsa Brecht”, (indomitable Vanessa Redgrave) besting him by forty years, to become his wife and ingress into a realm of acceptance, elitism, verboten because of his adulterated background; his genius centers on the “tangled web he weaves” when he perpetually “practices to deceive”; his toxicity infects his preposterous schemes, duping his wife but not his daughter-in-law, “Amanda” (divine Annette Benning) who sees through his conniving, scandalous contrivances.
“Georgetown’s” intrigue lies in Mott’s, a man of innate skills and intelligence, choice of a life infected with duplicity and faux inventiveness; Elsa’s embarrassing nuptial pairing and the decay of “The Worst Marriage in Georgetown” (Franklin Foer’s 2012 New York Times article); ambitiously flawed but watching Waltz is delicious, bristling, bewitching pleasure.
THREE & ½ STARS!!!
Peneflix
