Excellent

Rating: 10/10 (31 January 2006)

I don't believe this is a spoiler, but the plot appears to be exactly the same as the opera "An American Tragedy", commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera ten years ago and first performed last year. The first clue (unconscious?) was that the sound track is almost exclusively old opera recordings, ranging from the opening (the 2nd strophe of Donizetti's Una Furtiva Lagrima from "Elixer of Love," to the uncannily well-matched dramatic denouement (Iago/Otello except from the Verdi opera). Perhaps this is all just coincidence; the opera is based upon a book about a true story that happened in upstate New York in the 1930s; the movie is set in present day London. But the analogies are consistent throughout. Is this a bad thing? I think not; it is masterfully done.