Worth it for Kristin Scott Thomas, who is lovely, and the creeptastic performance of Alec Guinness. Gets kind of slow and laggy during the second hour, but picks up at the end in a flurry of ‘where the hell is this going?’ I approve. Also, great performances by Anjelica Huston and James Wilby and Pip Torrens.

I hadn’t read the book – and am not inspired to do so. The movie starts with an upper class couple who are reasonably content, until the bored wife decides to have an affair. Disasters strike, and while there is the occasional humorous moment, the general tone of the film is very depressing. I kept hoping it would get better, but it didn’t.

On the plus side, there’s an all-star cast, who played their roles well, and there are some attractive settings. But overall, I thought it miserable, and don’t plan to watch it again.

The film was technically well-made, but it really didn’t capture the tone of the book. The book is dark satire, but the movie came across as a pure tragedy. Very little of the humor of the book shone through.