An average movie

Following his major success with ‘The Last Emperor’, Bernardo Bertolucci came up with this movie and since I have always had a weak spot for his work, I was really eager to check it out. First of all, even though this movie was not a huge epic like Bertolucci’s previous movie, it was still quite a prestigious production and many actresses such as Natasha Richardson, Judy Davis, Ellen Barkin or Melanie Griffith were either considered or interested in playing the female lead character. To be honest, I thought it was rather hard to judge this flick. I mean, as usual with Bernardo Bertolucci, the directing was solid, I did like the interesting mood and there was a solid cast as well (Debra Winger, John Malkovich, Campbell Scott, Timothy Spall) and the whole thing definitely had some potential. However, with more than 2 hours of running time, they lost the focus half way through and towards the end, it started to become rather non-sensical. I mean, from the moment that Kit starts to wander in the desert, it became also silly and I started to loose interest in this tale. Still, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is an intriguing feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Bernardo Bertolucci’s work.

6/10