Please don't spend money on this.

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

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The film, actually, had excellent continuity. That was one thing I noticed since the shots were very sporadic. They always caught the character doing the same action he/she was doing before the cut. That is a hard job for any editor and takes an eye for detail.I enjoyed the film very much. As someone who watches a lot of historic fiction, I thought the costumes (except for Bette's - if she was a costume maker, she could have made herself much better clothes) were wonderful, especially Hortense's. I enjoyed Jenny Cadine's character as well as Bob Hoskin's portrayal of Cesar Crevel.One critique I have is that the atmosphere was not very French. Hortense could pass, but everyone else was rather English-looking. I understand they were English actors, but I feel there could have been more effort.Bottom line: Plot was devilish and delightful. And Jessica Lange was perfect (between this movie and Hush with Gwyneth Paltrow, the woman kind of freaks me out).

I'm not familiar with Balzac's novel, but I've read a ton of Romantic literature. And this is one of its classic variations (The virtuous are redeemed). I would never have selected this movie myself (friends did) but I enjoyed it. If I described this as Madame Iago, you'd have the entire plot. Nothing is quite so much fun as watching someone who's been disrespected revenging herself on a crowd, especially after how needlessly cruel they've been. Since the playing field will never roll the arrangement back in Bette's favor, why not just destroy everyone? It's like a bomb went off when she's done. I am in no way a fan of Lange, but she's adequate (while looking distressingly like Jim Carrey in drag).On the minus side, the lead-up to the 1848 Revolution is trivialized. The writing is extremely weak (Point A is always too overtly connected to Point B), and the lighting of every scene is too brazen. The accents are all over the place, which becomes very distracting.

So what if this movie reminds of dangerous liasons, or cruel intentions or any other film for that matter! Now-a-days, good luck being completely original, when we live in the era when the Wayans brothers are bringing t.v.s The Munsters to the big screen, Yikes! The hard fact of the matter is that Jessica Lange is AMAZING (as always) and Elizabeth Shue is a delight. I really enjoyed the "Oh what a tangled web we weave" plot line and you will too if you give it a chance. The story is well written, and the performances are effortless. I usually don't care for period pieces and truth be told, I had to be forced to turn this one on...but I WAS SO GLAD I DID. The supporting cast is a hoot as well.

This movie is fun in that it has Jessica Lange (undoubtedly one of the best actresses ever to live)playing a spinstress whose life is fairly empty until she rescues a poor ugly man who is a bit younger than she. In her world, people turn on her without a second thought...it's quite the morality tale...she merely leads them by their own will to their doom. Sweetly.