Summaries

Synopsis

Set in the 1830s, the story centers on Rosina da Silva (Minnie Driver), the sophisticated eldest daughter of a wealthy Jewish family living in a small enclave of Sephardic London Jews. When her father is murdered on the street and leaves behind numerous debts, she refuses an arranged marriage to an older suitor, declaring that she will work to support her family, even if she has to take to the stage like her aunt (Countess Koulinskyi), who is a renowned singer. She decides to use her classical education and advertise her services as a governess, transforming herself into Mary Blackchurch --- a Protestant of partial Italian descent --- in order to conceal her heritage. She quickly accepts a position as governess for a Scottish landed gentry family living on the Isle of Skye in the Hebrides. Patriarch Charles Cavendish (Tom Wilkinson) is a man of science intent on solving the problem of retaining a photographic image on paper, while his pretentious wife (Harriet Walter) flounders in a sea of ennui. Their young daughter Clementina (Florence Hoath) initially resists Mary's discipline, but eventually finds in her a friend and companion.

Mary, well-educated and unusually curious in an era when a woman's primary focus is meant to be keeping house and attending to the needs of her family, surprises Charles with the depth of her interest and ability and becomes his assistant. He is delighted to find a kindred spirit in his isolation, and the admiration she feels soon turns to passion that he reciprocates. While secretly observing Passover in her room, she spills salt water onto one of Charles' prints, accidentally discovering a technique that preserves the image. The next morning she rushes to the laboratory to tell Charles, and their excitement spills over into making love for the first time. But he becomes increasingly consumed with the race to publish their new process, while she is captivated by the beauty of the photographs they create.

Complications ensue when the Cavendishs' son Henry (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) returns home after being expelled from the University of Oxford for smoking opium and being caught with a prostitute, and he becomes obsessed with Mary. While searching through her belongings, he uncovers evidence of her true background, and although he confesses to her that he knows about her past, he promises to keep it secret. But eventually Henry tells Charles that he is in love with Mary, and Charles ridicules his affection and disparagingly remarks that Mary is "practically a demimondaine," refusing his consent and further alienating his son.

One day she leaves a gift for Charles, a nude photograph that she took of him asleep in the laboratory after lovemaking, and he begins to shun her. When a fellow scientist visits, Charles claims sole credit for the technique she discovered. Angered by his rebuff and betrayal, Mary at first takes it out on Henry, but then decides to leave the island and return to London. On her way out, conspicuously dressed as a Jew once more, she presents to Mrs Cavendish at their dinner table the picture of her naked husband.

Back in London, she embraces her true identity and becomes a portrait photographer noted for her distinct images of the Jewish people. Her sister announces her next sitter and when Charles appears, she quietly proceeds to take his portrait. When she has finished he asks her if they are done, and she says yes, "quite done," dismissing him. She muses to the audience in closing, "I hardly think of those days at all. No, I don't think of those days at all." But his portrait remains foremost among the scattering of prints in her personal studio and her expression belies her words.