Excellent but underrated film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

We're (justifiably) a little (or a lot) disgusted when a film blatantly panders to creepy old men: middle aged protagonist scores hot woman in her early 20s. Ew.That's exactly what we're looking at here, except with swapped genders and an extra layer of obnoxiousness. Susan Sarandon and James Spader are excellent actors, and their performances *almost* save it from the source material.Almost. I would have a hard time believing that ANY self respecting guy would put up with being treated like Sarandon's character treats Spader's. We're supposed to look at her as noble but unrefined, but honestly, she's just selfish, childish and manipulative. There's no sense that Spader's character has anything to learn from this experience, outside of how shallow his friends are. He could have learned that with any "unacceptable" woman: making the woman in question genuinely unappealing is silly.When you add the younger man/older woman aspect to it, the movie gets downright creepy. We're clearly expected to think that Spader's character has come down to Earth and recognized what's really important, but the only thing the movie proves is that (maybe) he's a masochist in search of a sadist. If you removed Sarandon's character's difference in age, coarse language, and casual racism, you'd still have someone I wouldn't want to be in the room with: I'd have a difficult time believing that Spader would tolerate her character if if she were a hot 19 year old. If she HAD been a hot 19 year old, you could keep everything else and she'd be the spoiled child that the hero got AWAY from, not the one he runs TO.There are only two explanations that make any kind of sense. One, the film wants to bash poor, middle aged women (no.) Two, it wants to feed a middle aged, female audience the same kind of obnoxious wish fulfillment that middle aged male audiences get with the four decade age difference between Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment. It's creepy there, and it's creepy here.Every aspect of this film is based on seeing Sarandon's character's world as preferable to Spader's, and it absolutely is not...not because of disrespect to older women, poor women, or unrefined women, but because she's simply irritating. The fact that there is a 20 year disparity to Entrapment's 40 says more about Hollywood's tolerance of old men than it does about its condescension towards older women: this movie screws up so badly that in some scenes the shallow rich people are considerably more sympathetic than the "earthy" heroine.I suppose that middle aged women are every bit as entitled to wish fulfillment as middle aged men, but creepy is creepy. When you spend more time thinking about the film's target audience than you do about the film, it's a failure (just like Entrapment, actually.)

I can't help saying: this movie has the best erotic scene of cinema forever!.. I have never seen anything like this. It's done so emotionally, hotly, touchingly..! Spader/Sarandon's pairing here is absolutely amazing.. Everyone is writing here about excellent acting of Susan Sarandon here, I agree, but I want to say about James Spader. In this movie his performing is brilliant, he looks very convincingly in the role of young Jewish guy, white-collar worker, who is trying to cope with the loss of his beloved wife. The scene when Nora is "attacking" him in a bar is filmed so carefully.. There isn't any superfluous movement, any false look.. Everything is perfect. And then, at Nora's place, first he looks so vulnerable and so protected at the same time.. And it's so hot to watch how he is giving in gradually. I regret that young James Spader hadn't been filmed enough by really good directors and in the pairings with really high-class actresses, like here, in "White palace". I think cinema hasn't realized completely his fantastic potential. I strongly recommend this movie for everyone who likes good psychological drama with very good erotic scenes..

This movie is interesting to watch if not particularly original. At its core is the relationship of a young man (Max, played by Spader) of high social standing with a poor, much older woman (Nora, played by Sarandon). Both of them have experienced loss (his wife died & her son died), and they waste their lives in self pity and mourning, not being able to let go. Being in a similar situation, they recognize each other for what they are and after a chance encounter develop a firstly sexual and then increasingly romantic relationship. But problems arise for them, because of the social and age differences, which are the main twists in the romance.The White Palace is a basically a simple love story, with above average acting (Sarandon and Spader both have their high and low points) and moderately interesting characters. I gave it six stars, but in a good way, since the movie does well what it attempts to do, which is good, romantic entertainment without breaking new ground.

Spader is quite solid and Sarandon terrific in a reversal of what most French movies are about: a young man goes out with an older woman (the difference being that in French movies the older man is five-to-ten times older than his Lolita-like object of desire, whereas Sarandon is not much older, by comparison, than Spader). This is a romantic drama, and considering this the film is pretty solid; certainly not dull, but predictable in spots. Plus, we have Brennan's annoying clairvoyance - she turns out not to be a fraud! But, I guess they had to throw in a bit of that psychic nonsense to please the middle-aged female viewers. (In fact, there are plenty of movies catering to male fantasies, so here's a middle-aged-women fantasy movie.) A very silly scene was the last one in which Spader smothers Sarandon the waitress in a crowded restaurant, followed by cheers and applause by the guests. Sarandon, once again, shows her breasts, which is always a nice thing. I have to add, though, that she isn't intelligent enough to play even a MacDonalds worker, so this movie falls under "fantasy" as well.If you're interested in reading my biographies of Susan Sarandon and other Hollywood intellectuals, contact me by e-mail.