Under Capricorn

Plot synopsis:
It is 1831. British King William IV has appointed a new governor (Cecil Parker) for New South Wales in Australia. In full dress military redcoat and cocked hat at an arrival ceremony, he gives a brief speech that is marred by disrespectful comments from some rowdies in the crowd.A younger cousin of the governor, Charles Adare (Michael Wilding) has traveled with him from Ireland. Even before the end of the speech, Charles is approached by a local banker who offers his services. Charles admits he doesn't have a penny, yet hopes to make his fortune in Sydney. The banker says he can help anyway, so Charles agrees to meet him the next day.During the next day's appointment, a powerful local landowner named Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotten) enters the bank and the banker points him out to Charles as an example of what fortunes might be made in Australia even with a convict background. Charles asks to be introduced, as he seems to recall the last name. The banker warns him that in Australia it is not acceptable manners to ask about a person's past or convict status. Upon introduction, Flusky recognizes the name Adare, and almost immediately proposes a business deal requiring no capital when he learns that Charles is a cousin of the Governor. Flusky offers Charles a temporary loan to acquire a certain land parcel that Flusky wants but cannot purchase directly because of legal limits on land grant applications, and Charles agrees to help with the promise of a huge quick profit.Charles later tells his uncle about the plan. But when the uncle wants to know about Flusky, Attorney General Corrigan (Denis O'Dea) strongly discourages any deals, saying that Flusky is now acting within the law but is a very unsavory character with a criminal past. The Governor then orders Charles to avoid Flusky.Since he wants the easy money, Charles disobeys the uncle and accepts an invitation to dine at Flusky's home. He comes to dinner at Flusky's large and elegant home in a carriage. The driver comments on Flusky's low social prestige despite his wealth and translates a motto displayed at the entrance: "Minyago Yugilla?" means "Why Weepest Thou?" Charles walks around the house before ringing the entrance bell, overhears and witnesses things that tell him that Flusky is using him to climb in social standing because he is the Governor's relative, and also that Milly the housekeeper (Margaret Leighton) is a willful tyrant who keeps the kitchen staff under control with a whip.As other guests arrive, including Attorney General Corrigan, they are all male, as all wives invited give an excuse not to attend. And, as reported by Milly, Sam's wife is not well, and also will not attend.Halfway through the meal, Sam's wife (Ingrid Bergman) comes down the stairs in bare feet and dressed in something that is more like a nightgown than a dinner dress. She welcomes the gentlemen, and walks unsteadily to sit at the head of the table.Charles recognizes Mrs. Flusky as Lady Henrietta, an aristocratic neighbor he remembers as a child growing up in Ireland. "Hattie" was a friend of Charles's sister. He sits next to Hattie, she recognizes him, and is happy to recall events of their past. But it appears Hattie is an alcoholic and on the verge of madness.After a short while Hattie decides to go upstairs to her room, but on arriving there, she utters a terrified scream calling for Charles. Charles rushes up and finds Hattie trembling outside the door and talking about the horrible thing on the bed. Charles enters the bedroom, finds nothing, yet shoots into the fireplace and comes out comforting Hattie and saying nothing can hurt her any more.Af the guests leave, Sam expresses his displeasure at the guests' wives who snubbed his invitation, and his gratitude to Charles because he saw that Hattie had been genuinely pleased and interested to have seen him. Sam encourages Charles to come again hopes that the younger man's friendship will be able to cheer up his wife. In Sam's view, Hattie's condition is the result of isolation and of being snubbed by the social establishment, and the fact that they became different people in a different environment after the years of his imprisonment. They're now an unhappy couple who are shunned by established society. Charles agrees to try to help her regain a sense of stability.Meantime, Milly is seen giving alcohol to Hattie and spying suspiciously on Charles.Charles recalls the details of the scandal back in Ireland: Lady Henrietta, of the landed gentry and Sam Flusky, a groom on her estate eloped to England. They were pursued by her brother, and when they were found, Flusky shot him dead. As the brother was armed and had also fired a shot, Flusky was not hung but taken to Australia.Lady Henrietta followed him to Australia and waited for his seven year term to end. When Sam was released they found they had much changed during those years, and the marriage was not happy. Sam concentrated on becoming rich and being able to afford material goods for Hattie, but it wasn't enough, Hattie started to drink and lost interest in everything. In the following years, the relationship with Sam had not recovered, and had been made worse by Henrietta's increasing alcoholism.Meantime the household is run by Milly. who keeps it functioning, and keeps Lady Henrietta under control.Charles insists on completing the land deal with Flusky. This angers his cousin the governor, who expels him. As Charles has as yet no money, he turns to Sam, who invites him to move in and try to cheer up and rehabilitate Hattie, getting her to become interested in horseback riding, in clothes, and life itself. He moves in, and slowly revives the self-reliant woman that Hattie was once.One of his first successes is to convince Hattie to look at her own reflection, as in a mirror, for the first time in years. But Charles' efforts to rehabilitate Hattie conflict with Milly's aspirations of control. Milly keeps throwing up various snags to upset the recovery. Charles begins to notice this, but not Sam.At one point, Hattie becomes confident enough to try to run her own household and kitchen without Milly. However, Milly has undermined Hattie's authority with the kitchen staff. The kitchen help, used to Milly's control, disobeys, and Hattie realizes that she has no say in her own house. She locks herself in her bedroom and refuses to come out. Charles, encouraged by Sam, enters her bedroom through a balcony and convinces Hattie not to give up. When Milly is called to the bedroom to help the mistress undress for bed, she knocks and because the door is locked and Charles is there she accuses them to be in a physical relationship, despite the fact that Sam had been standing below outside and probably was aware of everything that went on in that room.In desperation, Milly arranges to expose Hattie's hidden collection of empty wine bottles from the bedroom to humiliate her in front of the servants. This last trick backfires, Milly threatens to resign and leave, and, to her surprise, she is ousted from the house. Once Milly is ousted, Hattie takes real control of the kitchen, and her recovery proceeds ever faster.One day, Charles brings in an invitation to the Governors ball, addressed to Sam and Hattie. A dress is ordered, Hattie dresses up beautifully, but at the last minute Sam refuses to go and insists that Charles escort Hattie in his place. He is feeling rejected because he bought a spectacular ruby necklace that he intends to give to Hattie, but before he gives it, Hattie and Charles comment that ruby color isnt the best match for the coloring of the dress she is wearing.At the ball, Hattie is stunning and catches the Governor's eye. Before he realizes who she is, he shows her great deference and admiration. Meantime, the reception staff has identified her invitation as a forgery. But the governor insists that she stay, including Charles, whom he had ordered expelled from the ball shortly before.Right after Hattie and Charles leave for the ball, Milly, approaches Sam at his home, and asks to be taken back. It is clear that she is in love with Sam and wants to replace Hattie. Sam listens to her long plea in a speech that insinuates in all conceivable ways that Hattie is either having an affair with Charles or in any case is humiliating Sam by appearing in public with Charles instead of her husband or failing that, that everyone will think they are in love and thus humiliate Sam even more and the results could be socially disastrous. She also works in that Charles and Hattie are of a different social class from Sam, that they have views and conventions that allow them to do things that would be considered shameful for ordinary, non-aristocratic people.At first Sam does not react, since, after all, Charles is substantially younger than Hattie, and anyway his demeanor throughout has been that of a male who is not interested in women, much too interested in clothing, and always impeccably dressed. But Milly eventually manages to make Sam enraged about the situation.Sam goes to the ball, makes a scene, humiliates Hattie, who returns home upset and weeping.Charles follows Hattie home and attempts to calm her. Hattie tearfully confesses to Charles how she deeply loves and is honor bound to Sam, because it was she who shot her own brother, not Sam, and Sam took the blame to save her from prison.Sam returns to the house, demands that Charles leave for good. Charles takes a horse but regretfully the horse stumbles and breaks a leg, forcing him to return. Sam gets a gun, kills the horse, and as he re-enters the house, in a combination of anger and accident, Charles is shot.Sam is immediately incarcerated, as his convict past demands immediate jail for any violent offense.Hattie, in an attempt to save Sam, confesses to having shot her brother, the crime that led to Sam's original conviction. But such a confession brings complications, in that Sam would be freed only if Hattie were sent back for trial. They are in a real dilemma: If Sam corroborates Hattie's confession, he goes free and she goes to jail. If he does not corroborate her confession, he goes to prison for good. The Attorney General is not being helpful, since the governor wants to jail somebody for having shot his cousin. Corrigan gives Sam twenty four hours to make up his mind about what his story is.Meantime, Milly, seeing her chances to get Sam slipping away, attempts to poison Hattie. She is discovered in her plot, found to have planted a shrunken head at the bed to frighten Hattie from time to time, and ousted.Meantime Charles has recovered from the wound, and, at the critical moment, reappears to vouch that he was shot in a true accident and not in a violent act by Sam.Charles is put back on a ship to return to Ireland and is waved goodbye by the now happy Sam and Hattie.

Tags: romantic

Review:
I found it to be gently suspenseful, never really being sure who would get the girl in the end, or even who might survive to the end.Joseph Cotton was appealing, even though his character throughout much of the movie seemed to be villainous, and his reasons for being that way were quite apparent by the end of the film.
I think it was the portrayals of complicated people with no one being painted as totally good or bad, the nuanced characterizations that I found so artistic yet real.If you approach this movie without preconceptions, you might be drawn into it and appreciate Hitchcock's genius in an entirely different way..
The other actors, mostly little-known to American audiences, fill their roles well more than adequately and the very fact that they are unfamiliar makes them easier for the viewer to see as the characters they play rather than as "stars." All in all, _Under Capricorn_ is an underrated masterpiece that is surely one of the best "costume" pictures of the 1940s.
For not only did they have the world's leading female actress (Ingrid Bergman) in their film, they also had gifted stars Joseph Cotten, Michael Wilding and Margaret Leighton lending support, and naturally the great Alfred Hitchcock at the helm.
The critics roasted it, the public ignored it, and Transatlantic Pictures went bust.Irish aristocratic lady Henrietta (Bergman) elopes to Australia with her cruel lover Sam Flusky (Cotten).
A childhood friend of Henrietta's, Charles Adare (Wilding) turns up and, realising pretty quickly that all is not well, tries to help her regain a sense of stability.The film is a laughably overwrought costume melodrama, totally ill-suited to Hitchcock's playful, suspenseful directing style.
It doesn't trade on Hitchcock's strong points.The story concerns a young man, Charles Adare (Michael Wilding) who comes from Ireland to Australia in 1831 and becomes involved with a wealthy landowner, Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotten), who wants to do business with him.
Michael Wilding is as English as they come, and makes no attempt at an Irish brogue; neither does Ingrid Bergman do anything about her Swedish accent.This is a character-driven piece that doesn't have a fabulous script; Hitchcock was very plot-driven as a director.
Charles learns that Sam is not accepted by the local society but he goes to the dinner party, where he meets Sam's wife Henrietta Flusky (Ingrid Bergman), an old acquaintance of his childhood in Ireland.
Meanwhile Sam is manipulated by Milly and his jealousy gets him into trouble and discloses dark secrets from his past with Henrietta."Under Capricorn" is a melodramatic romance by Alfred Hitchcock set in Australia in 1831, in the period of colonization of this great nation by convicts from the United Kingdom.
The genre is unusual in the career of the master of suspense, but supported by magnificent cinematography and cast, highlighting Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotton, Michael Wilding and Margaret Leighton in a small but very important role.
Under Capricorn has been greatly under appreciated mainly because it was a commercial failure and because Hitchcock talked the movie down saying that he only made it for Ingrid Bergman.
This is one of Hitchcock's very best films.1831: Irishman Charles Adare arrives in Australia to make his fortune, and soon hooks up with Sam Flusky, a wealthy landowner with a shady past and a business proposition.
Ignoring the orders of his cousin, a local Governor, Charles continues to associate with Flusky and his alcoholic wife Henrietta, who was a friend of Charles' sister many years ago back in Ireland.The long takes the film is composed of are often masterful.
It describes the aristocratic Irish lass Lady Henrietta Flusky (Ingrid Bergman miscasting as Irish girl)'s disastrous marriage to rakish stable-hand , an ex-inmate called Flusky (Joseph Cotten) banished Australia .
When the governor's (Cecil Parker) nephew Hon. Charles Adare (Michael Wilding) visits them , he meets her on a bad situation , but he suspects she is being poisoned .This is an ineffably romantic picture adapted from the Helen Simpson novel with echoes of ¨Rebecca¨ and ¨Suspicion¨ ; it packs tension , thrills , suspense , plot twists involving family skeleton and intense drama .
This is an unexciting Hitch film in which Alfred even had the star of those two big Forties successes , ¨Spellbound¨ and ¨Notorious¨ , the great actress Ingrid Bergman playing with him again .
Passable interpretation from the protagonist trio , such as Ingrid Bergman as the unsettling lady , Joseph Cotten as a lower-class man convicted of murder who is deported Australia where he makes fortune and Michael Wilding as an impulsive young becomes involved with the strange marriage .
Unusual genre change for Hitchcock, a suspense-less western, crossed with romance and costume drama/ stage play, in the Land Down Under.Long and lumbering mess of a movie, with Hitchcock more interested in setting up lengthy tracking shots than anything else.
Viewers who admire Costume Dramas and Stage Plays are likely to give this Hitchcock Film a pass or maybe even apply accolades.
Instead, "Under Capricorn" is a sedate, weighty "costume piece." Though the acting is good and there are some gorgeous images, these ultimately don't mean much because there isn't enough of a reason to care about the characters and story.The problems start with the character of Charles Adare (Michael Wilding), a young man who comes to Australia to seek his fortune.
Through Charles, we get introduced to some more interesting people: ex-convict Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotten) and his drunken, self-loathing wife Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman).
But since none of the characters initially engages our sympathySam is brusque, Charles is a lightweight, and Henrietta is a messit's difficult to care about any of this.Hitchcock experimented with long takes in this movie, most notably an unbroken 8-minute- long monologue where Henrietta finally divulges her guilty secret.
And the performers (including Bergman, Cotten, and Margaret Leighton, who plays a sinister maid) are at their best during their long monologues, not when they interact with one another."Under Capricorn" is not a horrible movie, just a dull one, so if you're curious about this anomaly in Hitchcock's catalog, there's no harm in spending two hours watching it.
It was an enjoyable movie but I like the non-typical Hitchcock films.Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotton are wonderful and I really like Michael Wilding (he was great in Stage Fright also).This film was a little reminiscent of Gaslight (when I was a kid I thought Gaslight was a Hitchcock film) I really don't know why they say typical Hitchcock anyway, his films are really from one end of the spectrum to the other.It was his only period piece so I was curious to see it I really liked this film and hope more people will give it a try, In my humble opinion his last 2 movies were the worst..
Flusky's wife Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman) is an alcoholic bordering on madness in the face of her cold-hearted husband.Director Alfred Hitchcock is doing long uncut scenes again but this time, it lacks the excitement of something interesting.
'Under Capricorn (1949)' is a film that will no doubt baffle a large proportion of Hitchcock devotees, if only because it discards almost all notions of creating suspense and commits itself to being a costume drama, set in Australia during the early 1800s.
While, in the previous film, this style was basically just an experimental gimmick {albeit, a highly effective one}, 'Under Capricorn' makes wonderful use of the technique, with his camera gliding gracefully through the prestigious home of ex-convict Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotten), coasting behind characters and rising above staircases; the amount of organisation that must have been required to plan and execute these complex maneuvers is nothing short of astonishing.
When an ambitious Irishman, Charles Adare (Michael Wilding), arrives in the Southern Land, the nephew of the new governor (Cecil Parker), he falls into an awkward friendship with the well-respected Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotton), an ex-convict who has made a name for himself on this new continent.
Sam's wife, the beautiful Lady Henrietta Flusky (Ingrid Bergman), has suffered a mental breakdown, and, being an old childhood acquaintance, Charles considers it his duty to help this troubled woman to abandon her alcoholism and regain confidence in herself.
Sprinkled about this stuffy Gothic melodrama are minor elements of suspense {most notable in the final scene featuring the scheming maid (Margaret Leighton)}, claustrophobia {as in Hitchcock's 'Rebecca (1940),' the old mansion is an character unto itself} and murder.Though the story of 'Under Capricorn' isn't particularly interesting, and outstays its welcome by about one reel, the film is a fascinating feature from Alfred Hitchcock, and, if nothing else, exists as a testament to the director's technical ingenuity.
The picture was Hitchcock's second in Technicolor, and its disastrous box-office performance led to the closure of the short-lived Transatlantic Pictures, which had been formed by himself and associate Sidney Bernstein after World War Two. The acting in the film is solid all around, without being particularly noteworthy, but the characters have enough twists to their personality to keep us watching.
Leighton has turned the whole manor staff against Bergman when Wilding arrives on the scene.Joseph Cotten is a bit more rough around the edges than we normally see him on film.
In 1831 Australia, Irish businessman Michael Wilding (as Charles Adare) accepts a dinner invitation from now-wealthy emancipated ex-prisoner Joseph Cotten (as Sam Flusky).
As maid Milly, Margaret Leighton manages to milk something out of her part, but nobody can save this story from terminal dullness.**** Under Capricorn (9/8/49) Alfred Hitchcock ~ Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Michael Wilding, Margaret Leighton.
Henrietta Flusky (Ingrid Bergman) has a cruel husband (Joseph Cotten) and a vicious maid (Margaret Leighton) who verbally tear her apart and make her feel worthless.
Under Capricorn – Directed by Alfred HitchcockThe great experiment – hire the best actors and give them long takes to act on sets, just as they would on stage.
Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten fans also swear it is a good movie.
Leighton manages to give the best performance among the players.As for Ingrid Bergman, this film must be the reason she left Hollywood to have an explosive affair with Roberto Rossellini--the island of Stromboli must have looked good to her after this mess.
Unfortunately, "Under Capricorn" does nothing to sway that perception, as (despite some decent character development) it can best be described as ponderous and too full of bloated dialogue.For a basic plot summary, "Under Capricorn" sees Lady Henrietta Flusky (Ingrid Bergman) of Australia struggling to maintain the household of husband Sam (Joseph Cotten).
An uncharacteristic historical novel set to the screen for director Alfred Hitchcock, it stars Joseph Cotten and Ingrid Bergman as a married couple in 1830s Australia.
The film was a failure at the box office, partly because this sort of domestic love triangle was not the sort of thing audiences expected from Hitchcock and partly because, in a striking example of life imitating art, its star, Ingrid Bergman, had become involved in a love triangle of her own when she left her husband for Roberto Rossellini.
Whether or not the script consists of the best lines or not, Ingrid Bergman does an exquisite job of displaying both a troubled drunkard and a beautiful lady of class at the same time while presenting the audience with Lady Henrietta Flusky, an Irish girl who falls in love with her stable boy.
Margaret Leighton, who plays Milly the housekeeper, excels in her role as a woman with wicked intentions to harm Henrietta out of love for her Master Flusky (Cotten).
Joseph Cotten, Ingrid Bergman and Michael Wilding are lovely!!!!
No, it is not one of his typical suspense movies but the acting is wonderful and it is a sweet romance with a Gothic twist.The romance between Ingrid Bergman and her husband, played by Joseph Cotten has all the problems of married people who have sacrificed a lot and have lost each other.
Definitely not Hitchcock's best, one can even say that 'Under Capricorn' might belong in great master's few lesser films.
Costume dramas and Victorian soap operas are not Hitch's trademark, and that particular film is only recommended to those who feel the need to see every Hitchcock film, or fans of particular type of melodramatic period pieces.The casting, although all wonderful actors, is off.
Under Capricorn is a Hitchcock's movie far bellow acceptable level than others works from the master....the plot is about Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotten) an ex-convict who make fortune in Australia and have an unstable and alcoholic woman called Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman) but when he meet Charles Adare (Michael Wilding) as the Governor's cousin,he see the possibility to change your local status even accepting him to help your wife which already knew on Ireland before,they became friends but Adare falling in love for Henrietta...still interesting and a bit of humor too,as the Governor played by Cecil Parker who rules under the British book of way to unchanging command simply stolen the movie.
For one of them, Lady Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman), that life involves many bottles of strong drink wilting away in the care of her stern but loving husband, Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotten).
A lifeline arrives in the form of a carefree man from back home in Ireland, Charles Adare (Michael Wilding), who with Sam's suspicious support seeks to restore some of Hattie's old spirit, and give her confidence.Funny how Ingrid always got stuck with Alfred Hitchcock's problem pictures.
Charles' attraction for Hattie is clear - it's Ingrid Bergman, after all - but Sam's deeper love is tangled with jealousy and class resentment.Bergman does the best work, as she always did in the Hitchcock films she starred in, playing damaged goods like she did in "Notorious." "I lived on my will, and my will is exhausted," she tells Charles late in the film, by which time we finally learn the terrible secret that keeps Sam and Hattie miserable even as they remain together.Hitchcock really keeps you guessing as to which man Hattie should take up.
Running just under two hours, "Under Capricorn" takes much too long to get to the point, then resolves things a tad too neatly than it should.But accepting that this isn't one of Hitchcock's great films is not to say it's unworthy of his name.
He directed some poor films, but this has enough going for it in its elegant cinematography (Jack Cardiff's one time working with Hitch) and a luminous Bergman performance, not to mention a strong turn by Cotton.
Here was a story that dealt with the degradation of a human mind at the hands of someone dedicated to its destruction.The story involves, principally, four people: Henrietta Flusky (Ingrid Bergman), her husband Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotton), Charles Adare (Michael Wilding) and Milly (Margaret Leighton).
Under Capricorn (1949) *** (out of 4) In Australia, 1831, a Irishman (Michael Wilding) goes to the new land to try and make a fortune where he meets an ex-con turned rich man (Joseph Cotten) who happens to be married to a woman (Ingrid Bergman) he once knew.
Oddly, the film stars an American (Joseph Cotton), a Swede (Ingrid Bergman) and an Englishman who plays an Irishman (Michael Wilding).
I think it's a shame that this Alfred Hitchcock film was such a bomb at the box office, and with critics, if only for the reason that few may have seen Margaret Leighton's performance as Milly, the Flusky family's maid.
Joseph Cotten (solid, as usual) plays her brooding husband Sam, a successful businessman who was once a convict, sentenced to serve seven years in prison in Australia, where the film is set.The film takes place many years later, and begins when Charles Adare (Michael Wilding, who seems perfect for the role) follows his uncle (Cecil Parker) to the continent; his uncle has just been appointed the Governor of the British Colony.
Focusing on a love triangle in 1800s Australia, the emphasis is on the relationships between the characters, especially between a new arrival (Michael Wilding) from Ireland and the unhappy wife (Ingrid Bergman) of a businessman (Joseph Cotten).
Even the film's own stars had nothing good to say about it - Joseph Cotten nicknamed it "Under Crap-ricorn," while Ingrid Bergman fought with Hitchcock during its production over her character.
Set in Australia in the 1830s, the plot revolves around the marriage of former convict Sam Flusky (Cotten) and his wife Lady Henrietta Considine (Bergman).
Thank goodness Hitchcock didn't usually make period pieces.It's particularly disappointing considering what a great director Hitchcock typically was; a very good cast including Joseph Cotton, Ingrid Bergman, and Michael Wilding; the setting of prisoner-infested Australia; and a relatively interesting premise.
Then the scene of Ingrid Bergman's confession is among the most powerful bits of acting.But Joseph Cotten is miscast in the role as is Michael Wilding.
"Under Capricorn", a 1949 costume drama by Alfred Hitchcock, stars Michael Wilding as Charles Adare, a penniless Irishman who arrives in 1830s Australia.
The actors, led by Joseph Cotten, Ingrid Bergman, Michael Wilding, Margaret Leighton, and Cecil Parker do very nicely in their roles.
Hitchcock movies strike you for two things: action and/or characters and one of them generally makes the film, both in the best ones.
Basically, the film is a seemingly love triangle between Michael Wilding as a young Irish coming to seek fortune, Joseph Cotton as Flusky, a gruff man doing business with him because his past prevents him from buying lands, and his wife Hattie, played by Ingrid Bergman.
But none of this matters very much, compared with the intensity of the emotions on the screen.In one respect, "Under Capricorn" is the reverse of another Hitchcock film starring Joseph Cotten.
There is also a similarity to another Hitchcock film starring Ingrid Bergman.
Under Capricorn is quite different movie and is not pretty much popular.In fact its Alfred Hitchcock's movie but its not a suspense movie,instead its a snail-paced love story.Its slow,but pretty enjoyable especially if you like Casablanca fame Ingrid Bergman.