Adoration (2013)
Directed by Anne Fontaine
Lil and Roz are two lifelong friends, having grown up together as neighbors in an idyllic beach town. As adults, their sons have developed a friendship as strong as that which binds their mothers. One summer, all four are confronted by simmering emotions that have been mounting between them, and each find unexpected happiness in relationships that cross the bounds of convention.
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The screenplay was co-written by Fontaine and playwright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton (“Dangerous Liaisons,” “A Dangerous Method”).
The screenplay is by Christopher Hampton, Oscar-winner in 1989 for his script for "Dangerous Liaisons," adapted from his own play.
And the adapted screenplay comes from a respected writer: Christopher Hampton (who won an Oscar for adapting " Dangerous Liaisons ").
Adapted by the playwright Christopher Hampton (“ Dangerous Liaisons ,” “ Atonement ”), the film adheres to Lessing’s own spare, unyielding prose — a framework Fontaine regrettably festoons with vapid beauty shots and longingly pretty gazes.
Instead, there is lots of cuddling and spooning and scenes in which Lil and Roz frolic in the surf with their sons like Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in Beach Blanket Bingo while a happy salsa song plays on the soundtrack.
In 1992’s Damage, when Jeremy Irons started having an affair with his son’s fiancee (Juliette Binoche), director Louis Malle graphically depicted the ferocity of their illicit encounters, making us understand why Irons was unable to resist his disastrous desires.
Surely, they've seen Peter Lorre in, say, M, Kevin Spacey in Se7en, and whatever it was that Stanley Tucci was doing in The Lovely Bones.
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The script from Christopher Hampton (“Atonement”) isn’t quiet up to the talent’s level, particularly the dialogue that could have used more than a bit of polish.
Christopher Hampton ("Atonement," "A Dangerous Method") adapted the novella by Doris Lessing with no success in elevating the story or dialogue.
French director Anne Fontaine (Coco Before Chanel) and British screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Atonement) come to the conclusion that some people are afraid of growing old and would prefer to spend their days with those who are much younger.
Adapted by the playwright Christopher Hampton (“ Dangerous Liaisons ,” “ Atonement ”), the film adheres to Lessing’s own spare, unyielding prose — a framework Fontaine regrettably festoons with vapid beauty shots and longingly pretty gazes.
The screenplay was co-written by Fontaine and playwright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton (“Dangerous Liaisons,” “A Dangerous Method”).
Christopher Hampton ("Atonement," "A Dangerous Method") adapted the novella by Doris Lessing with no success in elevating the story or dialogue.
When French director Anne Fontaine is good, she is very, very good ( Dry Cleaning , Nathalie , Coco Before Chanel , etc.), and when she isn’t, something like The Girl From Monaco happens.
Despite its title, 2001’s How I Killed My Father dealt with violence of a strictly metaphorical variety.
Wrong! “Two Mothers” may be based on a novel by Doris Lessing and adapted to the screen by director Anne Fontaine (“Coco Before Chanel”) and prestige hack Christopher Hampton, with Naomi Watts and Robin Wright in the lead roles, but it’s an exceedingly silly, sun-baked sex movie, the kind of import that adds just enough brains to its genitals to get into U.S. arthouses.
Director Fontaine ("Coco Before Chanel"), making her English-language film debut here, shows something of a tin ear for dialogue, allowing the likes of this: Roz: What have we done?
Perhaps it takes a Gallic sensibility to suggest that this unconventional design for living could be a viable one, and there are moments when Fontaine (“ Coco Before Chanel ”), a French director making her English-language debut, seems prepared to tap into the material’s vulgar comic potential.
"Dangerous Liaisons'" screenwriter Christopher Hampton, who collaborated with the writer-director on 2009's "Coco Before Chanel," worked with her to adapt the complex sexual alliances Lessing toys with.
The director is Anne Fontaine, perhaps best known for 2009's attractive but tedious " Coco Before Chanel ."
While it sounds like the stuff of turgid melodrama, director Anne Fontaine (Coco Before Chanel) does a good job of making things appear organic and matter of fact.
When French director Anne Fontaine is good, she is very, very good ( Dry Cleaning , Nathalie , Coco Before Chanel , etc.), and when she isn’t, something like The Girl From Monaco happens.
Surely, they've seen Peter Lorre in, say, M, Kevin Spacey in Se7en, and whatever it was that Stanley Tucci was doing in The Lovely Bones.
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There’s not even an allusion to a particular acronym made popular in American Pie.