This is one of the more enjoyable novels I have read in high school and I think this film adaptation fits the book very well. It is about the life of husband Ethan Frome (Liam Leeson) and his disabled wife, Zeena Frome (Joan Allen). They hire a young woman, Mattie Silver (Patricia Arquette), to help tend to household needs and, as time passes, she and Ethan fall in love.I've found this movie to be quite enjoyable and engaging, as its drama and plot are enthralling and beautifully depicted. The plot does flow well as the movie is faithfully executed in accordance with the novel and the acting is quite astounding for the most part. The characters especially the three leads are sympathetic and phenomenal - you feel the suffering Zeena's illness is causing her and the complexity surrounding the forbidden love of Ethan and Mattie. The simplicity of the Victorian town the movie is set in and the snowy weather give the story a solemn atmosphere.If you have read the novel before watching this film, you will still feel intrigued by the plot and find the course of the events suspenseful, wondering how everything will play out at the end. It's a good piece of movie drama that is a must-see.Grade B+

Very good adaptation of a classic book. The characters in the novel: Zeena, Maggie and Ethan, are etched on to full screen very much as they appear in Edith Wharton's novel. The despair of poverty and isolation is poignant in this starkly beautiful film. The most intriguing aspects of the film center on Ethan's wife, Zeena, even though she is not a co-protagonist. Patricia Arquette is riveting as a girl of personality and looks who nevertheless has no options in life. Perfect casting, acting and dialogue. Gives you an intense, visual sense of the time and place. Suspense emerges from character. The end is truly a surprise though a surprise ending was not necessary. This is a memorable film.

Ethan Frome is one of those stories that is meant to be uncomfortable and unattractive, so if you were put off by either the novel or the movie, it just shows that they succeeded in what they set out to do. Personally, I am slightly ashamed to admit that the novel bored me nearly to tears, but this film version not only refreshed the story in my memory but also breathed a much needed bit of life into the literary version, which is something that I rarely say about a film version of a novel. Before I go on, however, I would like to point out that I realize how much is lost in the transition from novel to film, in that the film is not able to capture Wharton's writing style and there are scenes that are taken out and artistic liberties taken with the material, but as far as a structured story, this is a worthwhile adaptation.Liam Neeson brilliantly portrays the fated Ethan Frome, a character who is in an unhappy marriage to a wife who is more interested in the social status achieved by being married than in Ethan as a person. Zeena, his wife (played by Joan Allen), is a woman who has become embittered by her life as the wife of a poor man (as Ethan describes her at one point) and the fact that any scrap of love or passion has leaked completely out of her marriage, which was pretty dry to begin with. When Mattie (Patricia Arquette) comes to live with them, things begin to fall apart much more seriously than the emotional way in which the marriage between Ethan and Zeena has long since crumbled.There are a lot of religious and social undertones throughout the film, as we struggle with Ethan and Mattie, watching them desperately falling in love with each other but each as helpless to do anything about it as the other. Ethan can't leave Zeena for religious reasons, and social reasons as well, since he will be disrespected by the community if he does that (which is a little strange, since you would think there would be even more disapproval from the fact that Ethan and Zeena are distant cousins). And besides that, Ethan has moral reasons of his own for not wanting to leave Zeena, feeling that he has an obligation to her that prevents him from leaving her alone and helpless. This obligation is, of course, derived mainly from Zeena having put so much effort into caring for Ethan's mother before she passed away, an extended act of charity of which she constantly reminds him.Patricia Arquette delivers a fine performance in the role as Mattie Silver, although her iconography since making this film has completely changed the way she is seen in movies and makes her role as Mattie slightly less believable. But Liam Neeson is the actor here who deserves the most recognition, I can't even imagine someone portraying Ethan Frome more accurately as far as the way he was described in the book than what Neeson did in this film. If you're studying this book in school, it would probably be a good idea to just go ahead and read the book, because this movie is not going to inform you enough to be able to pass a test on the novel, but it certainly works as far as entertainment or as a way to complement the book.

The photography is one of the best aspects of the film. The depressing snow and freezing temperature really come across well. The acting is good. In particular, Joan Allen shines as the sickly wife and Liam Neeson is very sympathetic as Ethan. The essential weaknesses of plot derive more from the novella than the director; the theme is not that relevant for modern audiences and some of the criticism levelled against it is undeserved. The plot is faithful to the original although one character is changed from an engineer to a clergyman. The poverty of the town is very well illustrated and gives an alternative view to some Victorian set films.