The House of Mirth movie review (2000)
She goes to tea at Selden's house, and is seen leaving by Mr. Rosedale (Anthony LaPaglia). He knows that only bachelors live in the building. For a woman to go unaccompanied to a man's room is not proof she is a tramp, but might as well be. Rosedale guesses something of Lily's financial situation, and makes her an offer she refuses. So, too, in a different way, does Gus Trenor (Dan Aykroyd), playing one of those rich men who offer investment advice to desirable women as if they have only benevolence on their minds.
Lily's social world includes George and Bertha Dorset (Terry Kinney and Laura Linney). Bertha flaunts her infidelities, and George is too timid, or well-mannered, to rise to the bait. She all but insists Lily accompany them on their yacht in the Mediterranean, and then gets herself out of a tight spot by a subterfuge against Lily so cruel and unfair, it almost rips the fabric of the film. After that, Lily is all but done for, although her descent is gradual.
"Men have minds like moral flypaper," Lily observes. "They will forgive a woman almost anything except the loss of her good name." As Lily finds her credit in society running out, she turns to the resources she has left--or thinks she has--and we see finally that she is defeated. She is prepared for two things in life, to be a rich man's wife or to do piecework at poverty wages. The vise that closes on her in the final scenes is inexorable.
And yet she could have prevented her fate. There is the matter of a debt to Gus Trenor. We modern viewers are thinking that she need not repay it, that he is a louse and she can save herself, but that is not the sort of thing that would occur to Lily. Nor can she accept a liaison of convenience with Rosedale. She cannot keep a job as a rich man's companion because her reputation is wanting. Everyone knows the truth about her--that she is not a bad woman but an admirable one--and yet no one will act on it, because perceptions are more important than reality. What finally defeats Lily Bart is her own lack of imagination, her inability to think outside the envelope she was born within.
