one can only sit in utter amazement at this mess of a film and be amuse at some of the raf people have bestow upon it . the big problem seem to be the director inability to make up his mind a to whether it black comedy and farce or a combination of both . it meander all over the place in search of direction and have some utterly embarrassing performance that might be well suit to bad sitcom . what a shame to see the talented dianne wiest comic talent squander and the ever annoy jane birkin be so over the top she more bothersome than usual . perhaps a lot of the positive criticism be due to the quirky french nature of the film therefore and it label smart or genius . it neither . instead it bad tripe that leave a rather rancid after taste . merchant ivory should stick to the serious stuff a they certainly have no comprehension of comedy .