Perhaps director Altman should himself have taken to the psychiatrist's couch after this adults-only version of The Goon Show. All of its characters are burblingly bonkers, from the therapists themselves to the several flakebrains pouring out disconnected thoughts in their consulting-rooms. Yet even with a starry cast, a fair share of funny one-liners and a nice music score by Gabriel Yared, Altman has managed to turn their comic capers into a painfully boring film. The elegance of the cast and their costumes contrasts uneasily enough with the often foul-mouthed dialogue, but the film's chief stumbling-block is its director's lack of timing. So used to meaningful drama, Altman stamps a ponderous touch all over the gossamer thread of this thinking man's porno comedy. The result is a bit like one of those X certificate Peter Sellers comedies of the early Seventies: it thinks it's clever - and it means to make you laugh - but it just doesn't work.

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