Tulip Fever is a 2017 historical romantic drama film directed by Justin Chadwick and written by Deborah Moggach and Tom Stoppard, adapted from Moggach's 1999 novel of the same name. It stars Alicia Vikander, Dane DeHaan, Jack O'Connell, Holliday Grainger and Christoph Waltz.
The plot is set during the 17th-century "Tulip mania"
in Amsterdam. The orphan Sophia (Vikander) marries the far-older spice merchant Cornelis (Waltz), but Sophia is unhappy in the Arranged Marriage, while Cornelis seems to be concerned only with conceiving an heir, to no avail. Seemingly giving up, Cornelis decides to hire a painter, so that he could at least be remembered as having had a beautiful young wife, but Sophia ends falling in love with the young painter, Jan (DeHaan) and the two have an affair.
Meanwhile, Sophia's friend, the housemaid Maria (Grainger), ends up pregnant with the neighborhood fishmonger, Willem (O'Connell), but following a set of misfortunes that force Willem to be away, Maria realizes that the baby will be born out of wedlock. After explaining her condition to Sophia, the latter decides to pass off the pregnancy as her own, and eventually pretend to die in childbirth so she can leave to be with Jan, while Maria will get to raise the child as her own with Cornelis.
The film is known for being the last film to be theatrically released by The Weinstein Company, which filed for bankruptcy following a series of sexual assault cases against co-founder Harvey Weinstein.
This film features examples of:
- Arranged Marriage: Sophia marries Cornelis ostensibly because his large dowry allows her to leave the convent she was raised in, and because it will also allow her sisters to emigrate to New Amsterdam with their aunt.
- Awful Wedded Life: Sophia is unhappy with her Arranged Marriage with the far-older Cornelis.
- Beta Couple: Maria and Willem's relationship acts as a secondary plot to Sophia's torrid romance with Jan. In fact, had it not being for the set of circumstances that led Maria to no choice but to agree to Sophia's Pillow Pregnancy scheme, their relationship seemed to have things easier than the main characters' secret affair.
- Bookends: The film starts with Sophia being cared for in a convent, and ends with Sophia having joined that same convent after repenting of her deceit to Cornelis.
- Dead Guy Junior: Cornelius names his daughter "Sophia" after her "late" mother.
- Drowning My Sorrows: After thinking that he sees Maria with another man (in reality Sophia, wearing Maria's cloak, having a meeting with her lover Jan), Willem goes to a pub where he gets drunk. Unfortunately for him, there a prostitute robs him of the large sum of money he made on the tulip market, and when he tries to retrieve the money, he is beaten up by her brother and a mob of his friends and forcibly inducted into the Dutch Navy for causing a ruckus.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Cornelius leaves a generous portion of his fortune to Maria and Willem's daughter, then goes to the New World where he not only continues to build his fortune, but finally finds true love and builds a family as well. Meanwhile, Maria and Willem themselves have a good life together.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Cornelis learns of the conspiracy between Maria, Sophia, and Jan, when Maria and Willem get reunited and Cornelis overhears their loud quarrelling (before reconciling after clearing the air on what really happened to each other).
- Faking the Dead: Part of Sophia's Pillow Pregnancy scheme is to pretend that she dies during childbirth so that she can escape with Jan.
- Idiot Ball: Jan has everything ready for him and Sophia to run away together to the New World. He sends his drunk friend to collect the tulip bulb that he needs to sell for them to have the necessary funds. The man gets wasted and eats the bulb, leaving Jan ruined.
- Kick the Dog: Poor Cornelius looks essentially like a whipped puppy upon overhearing Maria and Willem's conversation and realizing that the daughter he thought he had as a memento of his late wife (who isn't even dead!) isn't his and learning the extent of her deception.
- May–December Romance: Sophia marries the far-older Cornelis, though it's very much an Arranged Marriage on her part.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Sophia borrows Maria's cloak for one of her rendezvous with Jan. Willem, seeing Sophia in the cloak, mistakes her for Maria, and follows her to her rendezvous. Crushed by what he thinks is Maria's unfaithfulness, he goes to a pub to drown his sorrows.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Sophia has this reaction when she realizes that she has deeply hurt Cornelis with her deceit, and ashamed of herself, runs away.
- No Pregger Sex: A "doctor" advises Cornelius of this to prevent him from discovering her Fake Pregnancy.
- Pillow Pregnancy: After Sophia learns of her maid Maria's pregnancy, Sophia decides to conspire with Maria to pass off the pregnancy as her own. When the baby is born, Sophia will pretend to die in childbirth, so she can leave to be with Jan, and Maria will get to raise the child as her own with Cornelis.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: After everything they did to be together, Sophia and Jan don't end up together, with her being too ashamed of the deceitful stunt she pulled on Cornelius to feel that she deserves happiness, and returning to the very convent she fled in the beginning of the movie to repent. Meanwhile, Jan is financially ruined after his drunk friend eats the tulip bulb that was supposed to give him security, leaving him right back where he started.
- Someone to Remember Him By: A grieving Cornelius invokes this with who he thinks is his and Sophia's daughter, even declaring that she'll be named after her. Touchingly, the ending montage shows that Maria and Willem kept the name.
- Trophy Wife: Sophia is basically this for Cornelis; besides Cornelis seemingly being only concerned with conceiving an heir, when that fails, he hires a painter so that he could at least be remembered as having had a beautiful young wife.
