Julia West

When I saw the stellar cast: Emily Watson, Mark Bonnar, Ben Chaplin, I immediately thought, "This has to be good." But no matter how great the actors are, it won't matter if the story is poorly written. It seems like many writers are repeating the same themes and then sensationalizing them; extra-marital affairs, and then showing in graphic detail the passion that the affair illicited. This story was so contrived and it seemed a desperate attempt to create a reason to show hot sex; that's all it was....quick, forceful, and male centric and not very passionate. How silly the beginning scene is where Yvonne has her first encounter with Mr. X. I get it, marriage and sex can become very routine and boring after many years. But the movie never demonstrated why and how this happened? It touched on some mental illness issues among several characters, but even these were not developed enough to help one understand the actions of the characters. Someone made a comment that they saw Yvonne and Gary's love/marriage very strong. How strong is a marriage if the partners are not very strong individuals? Needless to say, I was very disappointed this time.

The movie contained many timeless themes and the acting was very convincing. However, I couldn't get past the constant repetitive, overpowering music score. It was difficult at times to focus on the acting and the dialogue with this distraction; in spite of my being a musician!