Literate but mannered suspense drama, set in Northern
Italy where a high-powered art dealer (Mick Jagger) gives a shady critic (Claes
Bang) the opportunity for a world-class scoop when he offers him the chance to
interview a famously reclusive painter (Donald Sutherland). But he also blackmails
the writer into stealing one of the master's much-coveted works in the process.
Aware of her partner's apparent good fortune but in the dark about his peril is
the scribe's newly acquired live-in girlfriend (Elizabeth Debicki). Sutherland
is in clover as a courtly eccentric as, too, is Jagger playing the embodiment
of aggressive decadence while cinematographer David Ungaro capitalizes on the
foggy loveliness of Lake Como. Yet, in adapting Charles Willeford's 1971 novel,
director Giuseppe Capotondi and screenwriter Scott B. Smith play with the
supposedly blurred boarders between truth and illusion without providing
viewers with any definite insight. They also establish the bond between the
central couple partly by lingering in the bedroom they share within hours of
their first meeting.
Watch out for: Scenes of
harsh but bloodless violence, strong sexual content, including graphic
nonmarital activity as well as upper female and rear male nudity, drug use,
about a dozen rough terms, a few crude and crass expressions.
Rated: L, limited adult
audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling;
MPAA: R
© Arlington Catholic Herald 2020