Greta ScacchiCotton Mary

The movie takes place on the Malabar Coast in 1954, years after India gains its independence from Britain. Cotton Mary, a hospital aide and Anglophile takes over the care of a sickly white infant sending it to her wheelchair-bound sister to breastfeed. Mary decides upon herself to take over the English household of the infant's family playing on the mother's fatigue and blindness to what is going on around her (her husband's infidelity, for one thing); pilfering her wares and framing on Abraham, a long time servant to the woman's family; and telling tales of her family to impress the white people who are smug to her stories and the people of color. Her scheme soon becomes too much for her to bear when she confronts the issue of race and class and herself individually. In the end she nearly loses the respect of her family, who believed that they would one day meet the lady of the house.

Without doubt, this film is a feast for the eyes, but not for the mind.It has a simple plot. A deluded Indian woman weedles her way into an upper class British home and she starts the process of eliminating established servants (their word, not mine) and replacing them with relatives (even by supplying her own sister as a wet-nurse) who would in turn make her more important in the household. She succeeds until she pushes just a little bit too far then her world collapses. She also destroys the British family in her fall from grace.Beautifully filmed and the casting is absolutely perfect. As in most Merchant Ivory films, the pace is slow, but determined (not wishy-washy).The few brief moments of male frontal nudity was (to my eyes) an unexpected, exciting diversion in a somewhat orderly, sometimes dry production.

Interesting

Good movie

This 1999 Merchant-Ivory production is set in India in 1954. A wealthy British woman gives birth to a small baby. As she is not able to breastfeed, the hospital nurse, named Cotton Mary, who proudly proclaims that she is half-English herself, makes the woman dependent upon her and moves into the rich woman's house as a servant. Cotton Mary never tells the mother how she is feeding the baby, but the viewer watches Cotton Mary take the baby in a boat each day to visit her own crippled sister who is a wet nurse and lives in a house which the British refer to as an "alms house", where disabled and aged elderly people live.The plot is ridiculous. How can a mother show no interest at all in how her baby is being fed? Certainly a tiny baby needs to be fed more than once a day. And certainly, they had baby bottles and formula in 1954. The woman's husband, who is a philandering and uncaring journalist doesn't care either. And their older daughter who is about eight years old keeps the secret of these clandestine feedings.There's more to the story of course. There are the snobby British colonials and the legacy of colonialism. There is the trusted Indian servant who is forced out of his job because of the lies of Cotton Mary. There is Cotton Mary's niece who has an affair with the husband. But mostly the film is about Cotton Mary herself and her descent into mental illness.The story is awful but the film still had a few things going for it. One was the great acting job of Madhur Jeffrey cast as Cotton Mary. Another was the setting and excellent photography that transported me to a time and place in India that Merchant-Ivory does so well. But the story itself is preposterous and much too long and boring.

Great product

I love Greta Scacchi in most of her movies. I have to take exception to this one. This movie is so boring , one of the reason is that you do not care about any of the role played by the actors. All of the characters dipected in this movie are ofno interest at all . You cannot have any sympathy for any of them they are whithout a story . I have look at that movie 3 times and I cannot find anything good to say about it. Greta Scacchi who is good and sometime exellent in her movies is such a bore in this one. Don't have any great expectations if you buy this movie.

I love Merchant Ivory productions, and this is the main reason I purchased this film. The actors are well known and respected. As usual, the cinematography was beautiful, but the story was just okay. Some poignant moments, but I found myself wondering why Greta's character took so long to figure out what was going on with "Cotton Mary". It was so obvious right from the start, therefore the plot was unrealistic, and tiresome. Still worth the price, and lovely scenery.