Rather a long cut at more than three hours, this proves, after an excellent beginning - as pesticide-dropping 'copters drone over the city - to be a pretty aimless amble through the sub-strata of Los Angeles by director Robert Altman.

Welcome to a society that really couldn't care less as a score and more lives criss-cross and sometimes come to climaxes or watersheds. These are mostly deeply unpleasant people who often have no patience with one another. To stay in their company for this length of time certainly demands stamina to savour the occasional rewarding moment.

An all-star cast (including Jack Lemmon, Andie MacDowell, Julianne Moore, Anne Archer, Robert Downey Jr, Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Frances McDormand, Chris Penn and Huey Lewis) appears willingly in various stages of undress; for Altman is a master, is he not, and so it is all in the cause of art.