What could be more seductive than security?
When Joseph Losey mounted his adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's seminal drama A Doll's House in 1973, he went to the trouble of shooting it on location in Norway, which is one way it can be distinguished from that year's other screen version, which was completely studio-bound and featured an all-British cast. In contrast, Losey gave the role of proto-feminist Nora Helmer to Jane Fonda, who puts a decidedly modern spin on the character (and not always in a good way). His film also has a prologue provided by screenwriter David Mercer which sets up the circumstances that lead to the play's major crisis and introduces all of the central characters: Fonda's best friend Delphine Seyrig, who breaks things off with suitor Edward Fox because he isn't wealthy; her gruff but ailing husband David Warner, who grudgingly takes the advice of doctor Trevor Howard and spends a year convalescing in Italy. However, the crux of the matter -- how Fonda gets the money to pay for the trip -- is kept a mystery.
When the film catches up with Ibsen's play, Warner has just been named bank manager, ending years of financial insecurity for his family, and a recently widowed Seyrig has arrived in town looking for a job, which Fonda secures for her by using her influence with Warner. This simple act of kindness proves to be her undoing, though, since it is at the expense of Fox, a lowly clerk who knows all about the skeleton in Fonda's closet and will do anything to keep his position. This forces Fonda to fight for her family's survival, but it's hard to see why she's so attached to Warner since he's so condescending to her, calling her his "little one" and alternately treating her like a child and a possession. Even if that's what marriage was like in the late 19th century, when Ibsen wrote the play, Fonda's liberated attitude is such that it doesn't seem realistic that she would have put up with it as long as she evidently has. I'm tempted to borrow the other version to see how Claire Bloom tackled the role, but I have something else in mind for tomorrow.