This film is far from perfect. But as film adaptations of literature go, "The Cry of the Owl" is perhaps among the most faithful. Rarely do you see a film director got the cadence ---yes, cadence--- and rhythm of the original prose so right. Deliberate, whimsical, mysterious yet unpretentious, just like Patricia Highsmith's own writing.
The second best adaptation of Highsmith is the far more popular "Talented Mr. Ripley", but apart from the plot, the viewer doesn't quite get the Highsmith atmosphere. Here one does. The musical score is perhaps a large part of the success: Samuel Barber or Ives in their darker moments, it sounds like, suggesting an ambient that is moody, sophisticated, and unmistakably American. Then the cinematography: apart from some incongruous hand-held camera movement, the palette and framing remind one of Hopper and Wyeth.
Then the performance. Julia Stiles is amazing: with few words, Stiles builds a complicated character who is by turns resolved and tentative, aggressive and diffident, strong and vulnerable. One hasn't seen such subtle, tight-rope performance since the best moments of Faye Dunaway. And all this while overcoming Stiles's Russian-like tartar-blonde look that doesn't naturally cries for empathy as Dunaway's does. Truly, truly mazing.
Considine perhaps doesn't have the all-American good looks that one associates with a Highsmith hero, but I think he gives heck of a good show here, in a unobtrusive, hang-dog manner that only occasionally gets tiresome. Why can't women be attracted to perennial underdogs who have no small talk? Women like Jenny can; it is credible, and it is nothing to be ashamed of.
The major flaw is in the last 20 minutes, having so much dramatic turns of events got squeezed into so little time. It feels rather shoddy; or, to borrow a word used by Robert, the director seems to have suddenly lost interest and "botched" it. Even so, Thraves managed to pack in a few memorable moments with the kind old man who lent Robert shelter in the highly floral attic appointed by his deceased wife. Great lines, great delivery by a bit character.
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