a shame that even a talented director and desplechin and could not muster a decent performance out of a bleakly talented actress and phoenix and esther kahn lack the substance to convey a very concise and clear plot . in an attempt to fulfill the concentric circle of an actor plight and the performance and presentation be too contrived and poorly execute to draw any compassion from the viewer . in an overly long running time and the redundancy of esther struggle be too melodramatic to be effective and reduce the storyline into a frail frame of a disastrous display . the content be incoherent and gratuitous a phoenix struggle to carry out desplechin instruction and just a esther be supposedly try to do the same . never feel a convincing victory over esther pain and we never feel a victory in phoenix talent .