If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Everybody has them in their closet. Most of us manage to hide them quite well. Those that run for public office are just asking for trouble these days especially.Just ask John Kerry or Sarah Palin. Ask about swift boats or trooper-gate. Those things come out in the wash. Even the local politicians have things like unpaid taxes and questionable associations that are brought to light.But, murder? is that unusual. Not really, as it came up in the Clinton campaign in the form of unproven accusations.Here, in a French film that most American audiences would not watch, we have actual murders being alleged. Also some fooling around being hinted at, and associations with Nazis (that was also used with Bush in reference to George's grandfather).The film is slow, but exciting. You are watch each character closely to see who is good and who is evil. But, it is not that easy, as those who appear very good, have some evil in their past.The acting was superb and the story was very good. The direction was excellent as the story flowed at the right pace and headed in the right direction.Worth your time if you like watching characters interact.

Destiny -- how much of your family bloodline and what they have done before determine what you will be and do? Destiny is a major theme in Chabrol's efficient "La Fleur Du Mal".It's a straightforward story on the surface, but you always get the feeling something deeper is lurking underneath -- not unlike some David Lynch fare. There is great acting by the entire ensemble -- from Nathalie Baye as a political animal, to Suzanne Flon as Aunt Tile, and especially the step-son and daughter who fall in love.The end is a bit of a let-down -- after all the buildup, you anticipate something more profound or unexpected. But all in all, there are a lot worse films out there, and worse ways to spend 2 hours.

Incest that isn't incest is also a theme in Chabrol's latest "La Fleur Du Mal". A brother and a sister, who are engaged in a physical relationship, are siblings due to a marriage and not blood. Again, guilt is so far removed that even their parents had always hoped they would become a couple.The film starts with the brother returning from a four-year stint in the states. He is picked up by his father who seems to be an affable and simple guy. His stepmother is a local politician who comes across as grossly ambitious pushing her family to the side with the characters vaguely implying at some infidelity with her running mate. His sister, it seems, is attracted to him while he rejects her.But all this is half-truth as slowly unravels in this light mystery about upper middle class decadence and what they think is communication. There is the mystery in the foreground, in public discussion, about the family's relationship to Nazi collaborators in the past. There is a secondary mystery out of the public eye that becomes the most important about the father, his own motives, and how they grow closer and closer to the family.Chabrol's influence from Baudelaire, well as a fan of both, I don't really get it. I see this movie, like some of Chabrol's other critiques of the petit-bourgeois, more of an alternate reality that I'm not privy to. It's socialism of the privileged, and it's intriguingly perverse. The incest is safe while alluring. The murder is secondary and unresolved by the films end. The film closes with credits running during a party while a corpse waits unacknowledged. What will become of the characters ends up being unimportant.In many ways, this is Chabrol at his most sophisticated. The need to move between audience-aimed actions is replaced by built-up realism. The dialog is smart and the uneven story progression seems especially real. He's sacrificed his scathing wit to allow for the characters to organically develop at the limitations of their own wisdom.Part of the original nouvelle vogue and as important historically as Truffaut and Godard, this is just one part of a larger body of work matching that of Eric Rohmer and Stephen Frears.

Claude Chabrol must have been very uninspired when he decided to bring this boring number to the screen. It doesn't help that he and Caroline Eliacheff must have been speaking a different language. One wonders if they thought they had a movie out of the material they assembled together. This is at best a poor French soap opera with no sense of direction.Better luck next time M. Chabrol.