With several first rate actors and excellent filming, I was dismayed by the weak story and dialog, just not at all what I expected. Julie Christie's character is too haughty and conceited (snarl, snarl, snarl, who would want to be around her for a minute, let alone be married to her?), and Glenda Jackson is quaintly dowdy but amazingly we are told this ordinary lower middle-class woman has a romantic history with our rich, shell-shocked hero. In a nutshell, the story wasn't believable, and the script seemed to lack subtlety. The sets, costumes, filming, and cast should have resulted in something fantastic, like a Merchant/Ivory film, but it didn't come off well, and the stilted dialog and uncomfortable acting were the kiss-off. It's strange how so many terrific components would not add up.