This is another one of those films where I strongly dislike the lead male character (in this case, Ben), and have deep sympathy -- or even affection -- for the female characters, especially Audrey (Ben's wife). Presumably this is exactly what the film's writers and producers intended, and it worked!
The tragedy for Ben, who is a talented, intelligent, middle-aged man, is his unrelenting fascination with Chekhov's "Lady with the Little Dog," a short story of adultery that deeply influences his life. The choices he makes as Gurov and Anna unfolds are, rather obviously, the worst possible choices he could make for his long-term happiness. They feed his implicit nature for secretiveness and inevitably increase his destiny of isolation. And you end up hating him for it. Especially for how his choices affect Audrey and their two daughters.
Of course, he couldn't have made many of these choices without the complicity of his student, Mercedes, an utterly charming young woman who fits into Ben's fantasy oh-so-perfectly. Unfortunately for Ben, Mercedes is very young, just a college student still finding her way in life. For her, this fling with her professor is temporarily exciting and sophisticated, but it dawns on her -- as well as us -- that it's merely a transitory phase that will be a small fraction of her life story. But for Ben, their affair has become a life-consuming obsession...just like with "Lady and the Little Dog."
The performances from the small cast are uniformly excellent and the direction and cinematography are spot on. This is a terrific film where we can enjoy the churning plot and gripping performances while detesting the man who's stirring the recipe.
