In both the play and this screen version, Nora is shallow and flirty at the outset, a woman who has married a wealthy man so that she can live a comfortable life. Early in her marriage, she secretly borrows a large sum of money by forging her father's signature (so that she can take Torvald to Italy to cure an illness, in the film). Now, unable to pay back the debt, threatened with blackmail, and fearful of Torvald's reaction if he finds out, Nora frantically considers suicide as the only way out. When Torvald discovers her deception, he does forgive her, but Nora cannot forgive him for his attitudes, and she leaves to seek her own identity.
For nearly the entire film, Jane Fonda, as Nora, flirts, leaps around, and appears to have no ties to reality, interested only in spending money that Torvald says he does not have. When she eventually speaks of suicide, it is not even clear that she is talking about suicide, rather than just going away. Her decision to leave and presumably support herself is inconsistent with the character as Fonda has played her. David Warner as Torvald is stultifyingly dull, and Trevor Howard, as Dr. Rank, is wasted in the role, seeming more like Nora's grandfather than a secret admirer.
Filmed on location in Norway in the winter, the setting is gorgeous, with lush and authentically reproduced interiors and snow-covered exteriors, featuring skating, horse-drawn sleighs, and period architecture. The costumes by Edith Head are stunning, and the music by Michel LeGrand is romantic. It is the casting that does not work here, lacking the tension that makes drama effective. In the greatest of ironies, the liberated Jane Fonda, as the liberation-seeking Nora, is ultimately unbelievable in the role. Mary Whipple