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This collections features three of Scarlett Johansson’s films: An American Rhapsody, Girl with the Pearl Earring, and A Good Woman.

The Scarlett Johansson Collection contains three of the actress’s movies: An American Rhapsody, Girl with the Pearl Earring, and A Good Woman.

An American Rhapsody (2001) stars Nastassja Kinski and Tony Goldwyn as a Hungarian couple, Margit and Peter, who are forced to flee the Communist country. They leave behind their infant daughter, Suzanne, believing she’ll be taken care of.  However the baby’s grandmother sees the woman who is going take Suzanne and realizes she’ll be drugged and thrown in a sack and decides to keep the child. The grandmother is thrown in prison and the baby ends up with a nice Hungarian peasant family (Zsuzsa Czinkóczi and Balázs Galkó) who take good care of her.
The move fast forwards to when Suzanne(Kelly Endresz-Banlaki) is about six and she’s aware she has another set of parents and they sent her gifts from America, but the people raising her are the ones she considers her parents. We learn her grandmother has been released from prison and wants Suzanne to visit her. She comes to see the child and Suzanne’s father is busy painting a bicycle for her. She’s excited about her new bike and he promises her it’ll be ready for her to ride when she gets back from her visit. However, her grandmother has no plans to return her. Suzanne is then sent to America to meet her parents.

Kelly Endresz-Banlaki does an amazing job playing Suzanne as the little girl ripped from a loving family she adored to moving into a strange new world with a new mother and father. She seems to want to keep her mother at arm’s length, while Margit wants an instant connection. The look on Kinski’s face when Suzanne calls her, “lady” and not “mom,” is heartbreaking.
Johansson plays Suzanne when she’s 15 and disenchanted with her life in America. She’s a typical teen, smoking, breaking curfew and sneaking out. She misses her life in Hungary and continues to pine for that life and fight with her mother. When things get out of control her father agrees to let her go back and visit Hungary. Once there, she spends time with her Hungarian family and grandmother and begins to realize both countries are a part of her.

I’m glad the collection came out to once again call attention to this film. It’s a very intriguing, heart-filled movie with gorgeous cinematography and excellent acting. There are great performances by Goldwyn, Endressz-Balaki, and especially Suzanne’s Hungarian parents, played by Zsuzsa Czinkóczi and Balázs Galkó who are excellent. Johansson does a fair job in her performance, but she is outshined by the performances of Galko, Czinkóczi, and Endressz-Balaki.

A Good Woman was shot in 2004 and released in 2006 and stars Helen Hunt as Mrs. Erlynne an American vacationing in Italy in 1930. She finds herself no longer accepted by the high society men she’s dated and the wives want nothing to do with her. We see her spending time with Robert Windemere (Mark Umbers) who has recently married Meg (Johansson). Naturally all the gossiping women assume they’re having an affair and soon his wife gets wind of it. However, it’s when she finds paystubs written out to this woman that she really gets upset.

On the night of Meg’s birthday, she wears a very sexy dress only to see her rival show up in the same one. She runs away to her room and decides to embark on an affair of her own. She goes on a boat to meet her intended lover, but is followed and it is then that Mrs. Erlynne tells her there is no affair, but stops short of revealing who she is (and I won’t either). Robert and his friends also go to the boat, but Mrs. Erlynne covers for the hidden Meg and even though it jeopardizes her (Hunt’s) engagement to a wealthy man (Tom Wilkinson), she takes the fall for Meg.

It is in the final scene that we see Meg tell her that despite the rumors, she is a good woman for helping her to keep her marriage and reputation. The plot wraps up sweetly, yet there is a bit of sadness.

I read some reviewers thought Hunt was miscast as the femme fatale, but I thought she was perfect for the role. She manages to show she is not just a piece of eye candy out for money, but has brains and a softer side. I think Hunt was a great choice as she gives the character more depth than just a stereotypical society social climbing gold digger.

Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003) is about seventeen-year-old Griet who becomes a maid in the house of artist Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth). Griet gains the painter’s attention and both become inspired by one another. Vermeer sees she has an eye for mixing colors and lighting and he is intrigued by her. Griet is also taken with his talent, but both must hide their interest in one another from Vermeer’s wife, Catharina.

Master van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson) sees something is going on between the artist and maid and commissions Vermeer to paint Griet. Vermeer’s mother-in-law goes along with it as long as her daughter doesn’t find out. It seems the mother-in-law will just about overlook anything if it means the family stays in their position and makes money.

The colors and lighting in the film reflect the light and colors Vermeer used in his paintings, which was unique and added to the film. Catharina (Essie Davis) is perfectly cast as the slightly high-strung wife of an artist. I have to say I felt that Johansson was cast because of her resemblance, since she spent most of her time with her mouth open and I didn’t see much emotion shine through. I wasn’t sure if the two characters, Vermeer and Griet, were sexually attracted to each other or was it was a lack of chemistry on the part of the actors. Colin Firth might have made a better Vermeer had he had more chemistry with Griet, but maybe it has something to do with the fact he usually plays the same role in movies such as Bridget Jones’ Diary, etc.

While all three movies were enjoyable, I thought it was odd that they made up The Scarlett Johansson Collection seeing as she was probably the weak link in all three. Her performances weren’t bad, but really any young woman could have played the role of Meg and I felt that she was cast as Griet due to the fact she resembled the woman in the famous painting of the same name. However, they were all enjoyable movies, just not her best acting work. I found I became a fan of Tom Wilkinson due to his performances, but not one of Johansson

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