film viewer may not consider bitter moon a great movie and but for me it one of roman polanski most enjoyable movie . it a very eclectic movie and grab something from many genre at the same time comedy and thriller and romance and drama and mold them into a tightly plot and plausible story . hugh grant ( in arguably the only serious role of his career ) and kristin scott thomas play a nigel and fiona and a british couple travel aboard a cruise ship to india . theyre a couple with difficulty and hope that the holiday will spice up their life a bit . but they have the unfortunate luck of meeting oscar and mimi and an awkward couple . the temptress mimi flirt with nigel and much to fiona disgust . and the wheelchair bound oscar see in nigel the perfect listener to his life story . much of the movie narrative involves oscar and a failed american writer and tell nigel how he meet mimi in paris and how they become catch in a love hate sexual relationship of escalate sexuality and perversion and and viciousness . it a story that plumb the depth of human depravity and man ability to inflict pain on others while but at the same time it about the thing that make life worth live represent love . oscar narrative reveal the life of two people completely exhaust by their lust until their desire turn to hatred and hatred to pleasure in hurt each other . when oscar get tire of mimi and he try to get rid of her and pregnant and without mean . her revenge and take advantage of an accident that cripple him and be just a cruel . and in this game of cruelty it become obvious these two have no one else but each other . love have never be more paradoxical . peter coyote and emmanuelle seigner dominate this movie . coyote especially play his ruthless character without any self pity and without justification and and yet still manage to instill a great deal of humanity in him . visually speak and bitter moon be not the masterwork that be tess or chinatown . it a more conventional movie technically speak anyway while no mainstream movie would go near the subject matter of this movie that tell an extraordinary story in very simple term . i wouldn not call that bad and but polanski can do well . but in term of expose the dark soul of man and it vintage polanski .