by SARAH ROWLAND

There’s nothing terribly wrong with A Good Woman—it’s just that there’s nothing particularly great about it. It breaks even in almost every way. For every less-than-stellar performance from a lead, there’s a sparkling secondary actor to pick up the pieces. Does this make for a watchable rental? Yes. Does it warrant the price of admission to a movie theatre? No.

Based on Oscar Wilde’s play Lady Windermere’s Fan and set in the ’30s, this romantic comedy of errors begins with the penniless Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt) heading to an Italian resort to leach off the vacationing élite. A career mistress by trade, it doesn’t take Erlynne long to make the villa’s high-society women feel threatened, especially since their husbands keep sniffing around the seasoned seductress. Even the young and beautiful Meg (Scarlett Johansson) takes to keeping a closer eye on her better half (Mark Umbers), which opens the door for renowned playboy Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore) to move in on the vulnerable Meg. In the meantime, Tuppy (Tom Wilkinson) is head over heels for the Erlynne, despite what people think about her.

All this is more than enough fuel to get the gossip mill churning at top-speed. And as every bored aristocrat fights to get their two bits in about Erlynne, we get the odd laugh or two. But this is less to do with director Mike Barker and more to do with Wilde’s famous flurry of quotables (“There’s nothing wrong with gossiping; it’s the moralizing that’s in poor taste.”)

Barker’s biggest strike against him is his somewhat questionable casting decisions. Both Umbers and Campbell Moore, as handsome as they may be, are largely forgettable. And Hunt’s pinched face and strained voice lack the kind of sensuality that a home-wrecking temptress of Erlynne’s magnitude requires. Conversely, Johansson exudes too much sexuality for viewers to buy into her naïve babe-in-the-woods shtick. Wilkinson, on the other hand, is flawless as the rich lord who knows his most attractive quality is his bank account. True, one could argue he outshines his castmates simply because he gets to deliver Wilde’s wittiest lines, but that wouldn’t be fair. Either way, his comedic timing is impeccable from beginning to end, and enough to make A Good Woman worth renting.

A Good Woman opens Friday, Feb. 3

>> Movie Listings