Expectations

Supposedly inspired by Robert Altman's Short Cuts, this pretty but tedious film by Daniel Bergman (son of Ingmar) intercuts six stories of love, infidelity, disillusionment, and other "universal themes" which were far more compelling in the Altman picture. Among the storylines are: a teenage boy defying his father to become a musician; a sailor returning to his childhood home after years at sea; and a businessman trying to conceal an affair from his wife. As uninteresting as most of the vignettes are, the images themselves are lovely. In a very sharp film-to-tape transfer, the colors are vibrant and free of almost any trace of video noise. The translation used for the subtitles could have been a little better, however (in a discussion about dental work, one character says he doesn't have any "holes" instead of using the term "cavities"). Not a necessary purchase. (T. Rich)