For a story about illicit sex and the love, deceit, and jealousy that engenders, it's a particularly mild romance. However, the film's rendition, while beautiful and thoughtful, lacks passion. The mood of the film seems right: dank, sometimes blitzkrieg raging — all the more that an adulterous hug, stolen in a downpour, looks so good
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The film is as ugly as Henry Miles' face in the first scene, the characters look too gloomy. Sarah and Maurice Bendricks meet for dynamic sex, but their conversation doesn't hint at the kind of idealism that great love needs. For a novelist, Maurice Bendricks' speech was eerily mediocre and fell far short of expectations
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