Overblown, melodramatic "saga"

Rating: Null/10 (16 October 1998)

This is an overblown attempt at melodrama. Part of the problem is that the movie's separate plots don't mesh that well. Is this a "saga" about the character played by Brad Pitt, as the movie's narrator would have it? Or a story about how one woman's beauty is enough to pit two brothers against each other? Most of the acting ensemble make a valiant effort, but the leads -- Pitt and Julia Ormond -- either have too little to do, or go overboard in trying to do it. (The script, which veers from one story-line to another without transition or explanation, doesn't help matters.)