Cousin Bette

Based on Honoré de Balzac's bawdy novel, this period piece, set in Paris on the eve of the French Revolution, outs the sanctimony of the aristocracy (à la Henry James's The Wings of the Dove), where money and posture outweigh love and compassion. Jessica Lange plays an impoverished spinster who has sacrificed her life for the family's name, so when the matriarch (Geraldine Chaplin) passes on, Bette fully expects to take her place as the bride of Baron Hulot (Hugh Laurie) but instead is humiliated and demoralized when she's given the role of housekeeper. Grudgingly she takes to the task of raising her ripening younger cousin, Hortense (Kelly MacDonald); her only solace comes from nursing a young artist (Aden Young) to notoriety. Bette has designs on the magnetic sculptor, but he slips out from her controlling hand and furtively pursues Hortense. They marry, and in riposte, Bette engages the services of Jenny Cadine (Elizabeth Shue), Paris's courtesan of the moment, to enact a frothy tract of revenge.

First-time director Des McAnuff (moving on from theater's Tommy) doesn't train his eye on the charged political environment of the time, instead wallowing in the seamy chambers of Balzac's self-destructive characters. The performances, most especially Lange's devilishly wry delivery, and the lavish cinematography by Andrej Sekula are top shelf -- it's too bad that the vehicle that bears their fruit blossoms with the frivolous frugality of a soap opera.

-- Tom Meek