Felix-28

I rather liked The Dry, although I didn't rate it (or the book on which it was based) as much as most Australians, so I had quite high hopes for this one.

Alas, they were dashed almost as soon as the film began. The overblown, portentous music was set my Dud Alert quivering, and it was all downhill from there. Ridiculously over complicated plot with about four separate strand running at once, none of which were really resolved satisfactorily, and a couple of them not at all. I pitied the actors who had to deliver what must be some of the clunkiest lines of dialogue ever written, and perhaps the poor quality of the screenplay explains why the performances were so uniformly poor; even Eric Bana, who's an excellent actor, is terrible in this.

Just don't bother. There are far better ways to spend your time.

I read a book about the trial of Madeleine Smith (one of the old Penguin Notable British Trials series) before I saw this film, and I was quite excited when I got the opportunity to see the film, especially when I saw it was directed by David Lean.

Unfortunately the film was very disappointing. The book I read contained lengthy extracts from letters she wrote to her French lover, and what is evident from those letters - it leaps off the page - is the extreme passion of her feelings for him in the period following her seduction. She absolutely loved making love with him.

Perhaps it was due to the constraints of the times in which the film was made - Hollywood at its most prudish - but there is none at all of that passion in the film. The whole thing is stilted, from beginning to end.

What a pity. There's a great film of this story begging to be made by someone, and some actors, who can do it well.