It's one of these films that talk down at you; the cinematic equivalent of reading a novel in capital letters: it's all SPELT OUT FOR YOU AS IF YOU ARE AN IDIOT. Nothing is left to the imagination, let alone the intelligence of the viewer as the film moves boringly forward from one tiresome expository scene to the next. Even the "emotions" of the characters are underlined continuously by leaden dialogue or lingering close-ups. Cate Blanchett, a fine actress, is wasted in a lifeless role that simplistically smoothes over all the moral and emotional complexities that I assume existed in the original novel (I haven't read it)... At one point she asks "what am I doing here?" - the viewer in the cinema feels like asking the same question.