Hypocrisy and loyalty. Familial and parental duty. Perseverance and conscience. Friendship and love. Would you expect anything else from the filmmaking team of Merchant/Ivory? Respectable literary adaptations with thrilling moments are the trademark of the venerable team, the duo giving the world A Room with a View, Howard’s End, The Golden Bowl and so many others. Sadly, the producing half of the pair, Ismail Merchant, died last year while they were completing their latest work The White Countess. Not only is the resulting feature a credit to their partnership, but it is itself an evocative and emotional film, exotic and romantic in lastingly surprising ways.

Ralph Fiennes, a startlingly handsome and responsive actor, should perhaps always play diplomats. He caps off a banner 2005 with this movie, playing a blind and disillusioned former American diplomat named Todd who opens a nightspot in Shanghai during the late 1930’s. Fiennes, so remarkable here (convincingly playing blind), was also a much different mild-mannered diplomat in The Constant Gardener, one of 2005’s absolute best films. He followed that up with an unrecognizable and unforgettably sinister and slithery turn as Harry Potter foe Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

His leading lady, appropriately, is the startlingly beautiful and responsive actress Natasha Richardson. In fact, The White Countess is almost a showcase for her entire family, Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave appearing as her relatives.

This pairing of Fiennes and Richardson is the film’s main event, however. Richardson’s character is an impoverished and exiled Russian aristocrat named Sophia supporting her extended family in the Chinese port city until they can leave. Richardson, her accent perfect, makes one of the defining traits of her character the woman’s motherhood. She makes you believe she wants to protect and spend time with her daughter. In some of the tiniest shots, she glows with maternal expression. This connects her to Fiennes’ character, his diplomat have lost his own daughter in an the explosion that also cost him his sight.

This blindness affects his relationship with the Russian woman in a unique way. His affliction is only physical where it comes to love, Fiennes recognizing what is happening between them while Richardson won’t let herself accept what’s going on. Her situation is difficult, though. The women in her family look down on her because she must earn money by dancing (and sometimes more) with men. Audiences will no doubt be angered by the fact they live off her money all the same, while the actions they take near the climax could make some shout at the screen because it so infuriating.

The whole thing takes place amid the chaos during the Japanese invasion of China. The interesting characteristic of the narrative is that in both the love story and the war story, the movie is all about what leads up to the events, unconcerned with the after. The final act of the film features, aside from the invasion, the couple’s first kiss. Everything before then is all build up, the “pre,” if you will, and this definitely works in movie’s favor.

Costume dramas are the Merchant/Ivory trademark and this one is definitely steeped in the silky and smoky ambience of its setting. Locations and costumes seldom fit a picture better. More importantly, though, this is a good film, a more than respectable finale to an exceptional cinematic partnership. The White Countess is gentle and engrossing, fitting into the Merchant/Ivory cannon well.

Years from now, film students will come into contact with these two men and the works they created. They will find works of tasteful elegance proving quality does indeed last the test of time. Of their films showcased, The White Countess will surely be one of them.