Tulip Fever

Filmed in 2014 and then shelved, this costume drama fails on almost every level, despite a prestigious cast that includes Oscar-winners Christoph Waltz, Alicia Vikander, and Judi Dench. Based on Deborah Moggach's titular 1999 historical novel, Tulip Fever charts a romance that revolves around Sophia (Vikander), an orphan raised in a convent where the feisty Abbess (Dench) arranges her marriage to a wealthy widower (Waltz) who desperately wants an heir. But Sophia is unable to get pregnant. When her husband hires aspiring artist Jan van Loos (Dane DeHaan) to paint a portrait of him and his lovely trophy wife, Sophia and Jan fall in love. Complications arise when Sophia's saucy servant (Holliday Grainger) becomes pregnant by the fishmonger (Jack O'Connell) and threatens to blackmail Sophia by revealing her adulterous trysts. This inane soap opera is set in 17th-century Amsterdam, where a commodities exchange once revolved around exotic tulip bulbs, and fortunes were made and lost in “tulip mania”—the first significant, speculative “bubble” in European financial history. Despite the elegant production design and cinematography, screenwriter Tom Stoppard and director Justin Chadwick fail to generate any heat among the three principals, ceding all sexual tension to the supporting players—with Jan's drunken pal (Zach Galifianakis) supplying hollow humor. A torpid drama, this is not recommended. (S. Granger)