Nearly perfect but spoiled by a single element of exposition.

Rating: 9/10 (2 October 2001)

Nearly perfect but spoiled by a single element of exposition. To avoid spoilage I won't reveal what I'm talking about but you will know if you see the movie.
Beautiful acting, plot, construction, dialog, music, art direction, camera work, and overall direction are actually ruined by a screwball decision to reveal at the very beginning of the movie what the well-prepared surprise ending is! That knowledge, hovering balefully in the audience's mind, actually destroyed what would have been a tremendous never to be forgotten impact by this movie and I am still angry about it. I'm hoping that the DVD will have a version with this terrible piece of information deleted. I don't know who is responsible for this, but whoever it is should think long about the irreparable damage they did to what would otherwise have been a first class work of art. What a shame!