Awash with artifice and artificiality, this is a well-acted but boring period piece about two evil American dilettantes (John Malkovich and Barbara Hershey) in Italy who determine to break the spirit of an innocent, single-minded heiress (Nicole Kidman), at the same time providing funds and a mother for Malkovich's facelessly obedient daughter (Valentina Cervi). Close to Dangerous Liaisons territory, as you can see, but director Campion takes Henry James's story and, picking up her cue from Malkovich's malevolent Machiavelli, squeezes the life from it, keeping its emotions cramped and confined. Kidman - hard to see why she falls for such an obvious nasty - seems to be forever in tears, reflective no doubt of the character's inner pain, but trying us, the audience, long before an open-ended climax in which she seems to love one man, then be drawn to another. A long night's journey it is, into this particular day.

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