Redundant and unnecessary.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

WHITE MISCHIEF purports to tell the true story of a murder that shocked British colonials living in Kenya during the 1940s. It's a familiar milieu for those of us who've seen anything of GOSFORD PARK, DOWNTOWN ABBEY, etc., with slightly bizarre aristocrats wining, dining and, of course, sleeping together against a hedonistic backdrop of the pursuit of pleasure.The problem with WHITE MISCHIEF is a simple one: the characters are all so dull. The pretty-but-vacuous lead character, played by Greta Scacchi, is a fine example of this; she has absolutely no depth or presence, nothing on which to centre the viewer's attention. The male cast members, particularly Joss Ackland and Charles Dance, are by far the more interesting, but even these have little to work with.For fans of British cinema, WHITE MISCHIEF is worth catching thanks to the presence of numerous familiar faces, including Ray McAnally, Trevor Howard, John Hurt and Geraldine Chaplin. There are also turns for a couple of youngsters, Hugh Grant and Gregor Fisher, and an eye-popping cameo from Hammer starlet Jacqueline Pearce (THE REPTILE).Sadly, though, I found this dull and sleep-inducing for the most part, despite the interest generated by the murder sub-plot. That and the subsequent court case are intriguing, as is Ackland at the climax, but the rest of the film is just an entirely forgettable example of the extraordinarily dull lives of the aristocracy and why they are best ignored for the most part.

This cynical drama set in pre-WWII colonial Kenya (where the lifestyles of the rich and decadent were enhanced by casual drug abuse and infidelity) presents a glossy but unfocused account of a May-December marriage of convenience, brought to a tragic end after one too many indiscreet liaisons between frustrated young wife Greta Scacchi and local Casanova Charles Dance. The film is based on a true story, widely reported at the time (in England, at least), and like its two lovers is cool and dispassionate and pleasant to look at. But the script makes the fatal mistake of sanitizing the illicit affair with feelings of true love, and because all the sex is conducted with such impeccable protocol the effect is more polite than shocking. Director and co-writer Michael Radford's script is full of barbed and witty dialogue, but re-writes history for a dramatically tidy (and quite bloody) resolution.

As someone who loathes empires and imperialism, I find myself strangely drawn to the remains of the planet's last old fashioned empire (as opposed to the new model currently imperializing, I think I can use that word, the world). I have been fortunate to wander around the post-colonial British remains in Singapore and Malaysia back in the 70s before those remains were washed from the slates of those new states in Southeast Asia. Although that peek was small it was enough to stay in my memory and to light the fire of interest in further, particularly British, remnants of their recent colonial past.This interest (probably grounded in history and curiosity) led me to this movie and I was not disappointed. I thought the script, the acting, the direction and the cinematography were excellent. The actors were brilliantly cast so the entire assembly fell into their roles to the extent that I saw the group as believable, as if they had just left their first-class cabins on one of those beautiful old liners that were the life-blood of Britian's empire.I intend to begin collecting all the DVDs of this colonial period in English history, as seen from both the colonizers and their subjects. I suppose that living as I do in a colonized country, albeit one from under the mantel for many years, has sparked this interest. Of course, not being part of the higher class I must view the insights of White Mischief as a voyeur of the recent past. The movie provided an exceptional glimpse into this lost world and for that I must congratulate all concerned with its production.

Many films, most rather bland by cinematic standards, have been made about the antics of idle rich Brits living abroad estranged from their homeland during the days of WWII. Though most such films have dealt with Italy's Tuscany area (specifically Lake Como), "White Mischief" is another such flick which slogs tediously through seemingly endless moments of uppercrusty decadence until finally and almost reluctantly getting around to...drum roll, please...the Murder! Telling a true story which is not even a footnote of a footnote in African history, this long on talent and short on story flick conjures up too little, too late. A mediocre watch at best which will be most appreciated by those into period dramas about Brits abroad.