Children's writer and illustrator Ted (Bridges) and his wife Marion (Basinger) have different ways of dealing with the deaths of their two teenage sons.

Ted sheds his clothes at the drop of a... well, pair of underpants, when he's not seducing fruitcase life model and rich neighbour Evelyn Vaughn (Rogers).

Stuck fast in a deep well of mourning, Marion appears to be in a catatonic state, staring out to sea from the lawns of their clapboard house in America's exclusive Hamptons.

Caught between them is four-year-old daughter Ruth (Elle, sister of Dakota Fanning), who was born after tragedy robbed the bohemian couple of their two boys.

Marion hasn't recovered sufficiently from the deaths four years before to love her new daughter while Ted has moved on...and away - both sexually and emotionally - from his shell-shocked wife.

One summer, Ted hires earnest teenager Eddie O'Hare (Foster), the son of friends and an aspiring writer, to be his driver and assistant, transcribing Ted's rough drafts.

Virginal in more than one sense, Eddie becomes captivated by Marion and they embark on an affair after she and Ted enter into a trial separation.

Based on the John Irving novel A Widow For One Year, this benefits from topnotch performances from a couple of seasoned actors but suffers from clumsy swings of mood.

Bridges and Basinger rivet the attention as the estranged couple tacitly bound together because of their unique knowledge of one another.

However, the piece lurches from drama to comedy like a rusty gearshift and often seems one step removed from reality, particularly when farce clashes with intense emotion.

It's a gruelling trip only lightly seasoned by humour - a bitter Ted humiliated by his wife's adultery dismisses Eddie's writings as "a series of anecdotes that doesn't add up to much."

By the time the credits are rolling, you're not unhappy to be taking your leave of them.

Tim Evans