The Chatterley Affair

Louise Delamere and Rafe Spall star as lusty jurors in The Chatterley Affair, a docudrama based on the obscenity trial held in October 1960 over D.H. Lawrence's book, Lady Chatterley's Lover. Mixing historical fact into this love story about Keith, a married man (Spall) and divorcee Helena (Delamere), the film reiterates Lawrence's book's message about infusing dull daily life with passion and vitality. As the jurors read the book in court, the hearing proceeds with various actors filling in for those who were originally involved, like Allen Lane, founder of Penguin Books. The couple's affair heats up as they read passages from Lady Chatterley, and decide to reenact scenes to experience the novel's power firsthand. Though a real documentary about this banned book would be more historically valuable, the notion of creating a story inspired by the novel, framed by the novel itself as read by jurors, is an interesting experiment. Certain scenes are lame compared to the novel's potent passages, for example when Helena and Keith practice Lawrence's "bawdy" vocabulary in bed. The Chatterley Affair reminds the viewer how this important piece of literature succeeded in teaching readers that sex is a weapon against "society's ills," but the film's meta-narrative is less resounding than the actual book. Nevertheless, the film will educate viewers, serving as a reminder that our freedom to read is one we have fought for. --Trinie Dalton