This beautifully-acted period drama, based on a true story, is lovely to look at but never quite as effective as it might be. Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteuil and Emir Kusturica are all fine in a story that begins in 1850 on a remote French island off the coast of Canada, where a fisherman is sentenced to death after killing a man in a drunken fit. While the islanders wait for a guillotine to carry out the sentence, Madame La, the wife of the captain of the local garrison, sets out to rehabilitate the condemned man - with surprising results. Although gripping stuff, the film remains unpersuasive as to its views on the death penalty.