A Tedious Swan-Song from a Legendary Director

Rating: 6/10 (13 May 2002)

This is in many ways an interesting look at jealousy and infidelity that is seriously marred by two elements: (1) excruciatingly slow pacing, and (2) building the movie around the famed centerpiece orgy scene, which may have seemed daring when Kubrick first started working on this screenplay in 1975, but today looks like a pretentious and very expensive scene from a soft-core cable flick. On the plus side, Kidman shines in what are essentially 3 dramatic monologues that occupy most of her time on screen. There's much to enjoy visually in terms of the use of color and light, and the haunting piano theme used during the orgy is an instant classic. Kubrick also manages to build some suspense, but by the time the mysteries were explained, my reaction was, "That's it? That's what I waited 2 and a half hours to hear?"