This musty but tasty drama is not so much Dostoyevsky's famous story as the writing of it. 20-year-old stenographer Anna (Jodhi May) takes a month's work with the gambling-addicted, epileptic Russian novelist (Michael Gambon). She finds he has struck a desperate bargain with an unscrupulous publisher, and has only a few weeks to complete a book or face financial ruin. Drawn into his world of sex and gambling through the words of the book she's determined he'll finish, Anna becomes an indispensable part of the author's world. Although the film is often slow, its characters are drawn to the life: it's hard to imagine these 18th-century people looking like anyone else. Veteran actress Luise Rainer, unseen for many years, makes a glittering comeback as the novel hero's quavering grandmother, who becomes as addicted to roulette as her grandson.


©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes