Alfred Hitchcock called it The McGuffin. He was referring to an ingredient fundamental to the mechanics of a movie; a plot device, not necessarily animate or seen, around which the narrative revolved. The eponymous McGuffin in this film is a small, very rare and very expensive bronze figurine. To Jake and Tina, a well-bred, over-fed, but stone broke American couple holed up in a swank London hotel, it represents the answer to their acute financial woes. To Jenny, the poor, deaf chambermaid who steals it, it is the means by which she is able to transport herself, albiet briefly, beyond her impoverished environment and the restrictions of her affliction. Written and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, The Object of Beauty, despite its lightweight-farce-bordering-on-the-screwball tone, actually manages to pass muster as a reasonably clever, morally introspective parable about wealth and poverty and the overlapping vicissitudes attendant to both. As the effete, cash-strapped couple, John Malkovich and Andie McDowell effortlessly keep the film's easy-going irreverence buoyant.
