Lady Chatterley

Anyone cueing up director Pascale Ferran's French adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's famously controversial novel for prurience's sake will be very disappointed: although the final version of the book made waves—and brought legal challenges—for its explicit sexuality and tough language, this Lady Chatterley is based on a more discreet earlier draft. So while there are some steamy scenes of lovers in the heat of passion or gamboling about the forest in the nude, they're both infrequent and artily shot. And those looking for a truly powerful retelling of the tale about a repressed English noblewoman with a paralyzed husband and the gamekeeper with whom she has an affair won't be terribly impressed either—for quite different reasons. The film is both lethargic (at nearly three hours!) and photographed without much visual distinction, and therefore lumbers rather than soars, feeling dry and desiccated despite all the green shrubbery and pink skin on display. Nor does the cast bring the material to life. But what really dooms Lady Chatterley is the fact that the language, both verbal and cinematic, feels wrong: the book is quintessentially British, and the fact that the film looks so Continental and sounds so Gallic ultimately undermines it. To be fair, the general critical response to this—with the notable exception of Roger Ebert—was glowing, so consider this a strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD extras include a photo gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a disappointing film.] (F. Swietek)