Oscar and Lucinda

(Fox)

Gillian Armstrong's adaptation of Peter Carey's Booker Prize-winning novel doesn't penetrate beyond the surface of its water and glass metaphors. Having emigrated to Australia, Oscar Hopkins (Ralph Fiennes) vows to prove his love for fellow gambler and nonconformist Lucinda Leplastrier (an earthily ethereal Cate Blanchett) by transporting a glass chapel over dangerous terrain. The image of a somber Oscar seated in the church as it floats down a river is impressive, but it's also too fragile a craft for the film's weighty symbolic cargo.