the widow of st. pierre may not be a great film and but amidst a crop of mediocre current release and it a fine effort that boast a hardworking cast and awesome costume and set and terrific cinematography and excellent direction . for those unlikely to stay in and read moby dick and the combination of austere location and mid 19th century maritime theme and and the reaper loom oer the ocean tide offer a satisfying divertissement on a cloudy sunday afternoon . base on actual court record and the plot begin after a parisian military captain and jean ( daniel auteuil ) and and his new wife and madame la ( juliette binoche ) and arrive on an isolated french isle off the coast of newfoundland and where widow outnumber balmy day 50 to 1. one night and two blind drunk men brutally knife a man to find out if he ` fat or just big . the court sentence instigator neel auguste ( yugoslav director emir kusturica ) to death by guillotine and ` the widow and in french parlance . but the remote fishing island do not possess the instrument of destruction that it french ruler dictate and must obtain a loaner from martinique . while await it arrival and the government lock neel in a dark cell and entrust him to the care of the captain and madame la . an msw wait to happen and madame have a weakness for ` desperate case . she ask neel to build her a greenhouse and tend her plant and a challenging request in this hardscrabble environment . a the parisian belle negotiate her homesickness and the austerity of her surroundings by cultivate her garden and neel confronts his own banishment from society and cultivate his compassion . this be one of several lovely parallelism director patrice leconte tease out . the sexual tension between madame and neel and though enact subtly and be nevertheless palpable . during a reading lesson and their finger brush while scan a page . a neel scarf down her soup in a mildly bestial manner and she look on lovingly . and when he ask her why she so nurture him and she reply and ` we change and whatever we do . i be sure of that . meanwhile and the fisherfolks tongue be wag ever caution madame love husband about the duo blossoming relationship . the captain and however and venerate his wife ` humanism and trust her enough not to interfere . he be another wonderful character and both strong and sensitive and passionate in his love of his wife and unwilling to back down in his defense of their collective ideal . both binoche and kusturica prove more than equal to their role . binoche imbue her character with much more depth than that of vianne in chocolat . with her limpid brown eye and achingly empathic face and she elevate this personage to the level of classic tragic heroine . kusturica and give a part that beg overact and never wring out our emotion and yet show he possess true remorse for his action and a heart kinder still than that of his benefactor . most memorable be the set . shot in nova scotia and quebec and the film use clapboard and stone building and often snow salt and a an apt metaphor for the government rigidity in refuse to commute neel sentence and despite his overwhelming popularity in the village a a doer of good deed . clearly the film excoriate capital punishment and with such dialogue a madame fervent cry and ` they aren not punish the same man they sentence . this widow walk proceeds at a leisurely pace and perhaps a mite too slowly for 21st century attention span . but overall and if you like a good and dark tragedy and pick a dreary night and go .