Bride of the Wind

A bio-pic about turn-of-the-century Austrian muse Alma Mahler, Bride of the Wind holds our interest largely because of the captivating beauty and intelligence of its lead actress, Sarah Wynter (American Psycho, The 6th Day), who dominates the frame in every scene--rightly so, since her character is a woman who captured the hearts and inspired the works of several great artists of her time. Alma either married or became lovers with composer Gustav Mahler (Jonathan Pryce), painter Oskar Kokoschka (Vincent Perez), influential architect Walter Gropius (Simon Verhoeven) and novelist Franz Werfel (Gregor Seberg)--often to the detriment of her own creativity. Her frustration and increasingly mercurial nature drives Wynter's strong performance, but the film comes up short on passion, and more troubling, it never really shows us how Alma's influence truly inspired her lovers' work. Directed by Bruce Beresford, returning to respectability after Double Jeopardy, this is an optional purchase. (R. Blackwelder)