Oh, heaven help me-!

Rating: Null/10 (2 September 2002)

Beautiful, beautiful film. Ralph Fiennes is absolutely incredible. I didn't at first like Kristen Scott-Thomas' character as Katherine; not that she didn't act it well, but that I simply didn't approve of Katherine (Disrespected women who know how to sew? Didn't want to bargain? Didn't understand what the Count meant when he said that he didn't want to be owned? Was she a moron? What kind of woman could possibly say those things?). But having seen the film over and over, now, I approve of Scott-Thomas' acting so much that I have excused the character of Katherine her weird modern flaws. The movie dragged a bit in the parts with Dafoe. I thought the strange side-story of Binoche and her lover distracting against the possessive love story that would have been even more powerful if left in Fiennes' and Scott-Thomas' hands. Binoche is lovely, it wasn't her fault. Overall, Ralph Fiennes carried this movie just as he has several of his films. What a hit. Fiennes steals my very breath, as always. 9/10
-Angel, TX