Three Americans Lose Their Way and Go Mad in the Desert would have been a better title for this rambling, shambolic effort from director Bernardo Bertolucci. After a first hour in which not a lot happens, by the time Debra Winger wanders alone into the seemingly endless sand dunes and becomes a sex slave to a wandering Taureg leader (played by Eric Vu-An of the Paris Ballet) you'll be reaching for the channel zapper. In fact, anyone not familiar with Paul Bowles' 1949 novel, on which the film is based, will be totally mystified and probably suffering from a headache by this time. Philosophy does not a good movie script make. To be sure, the film is ravishingly shot - but to no avail. Winger and John Malkovich are insipid leading characters and it is left to Britons Jill Bennett (in her last film appearance) and Timothy Spall to shine as tourists-from-hell in the best John Huston tradition of bizarre supporting players. A major miss from one of cinema's great storytellers.

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