Lesser Bertolucci

Oblomov_81

"Besieged" plays out like a confused, misguided remake of Bernardo Bertolucci's much more assured "Last Tango in Paris." It is an ineffective combination of political and romantic drama, meandering back and forth between the two and never really concentrating on either. The film has an interesting setup, with the imprisonment of Shandurai's husband and the emotional instability of Kinsky, but the story gradually falls apart after that. There is no real emotional force driving the events in the film; the audience is kept at a distance by the cold, almost passionless tone, and there is never any satisfying realization of Shandurai's sadness or Kinsky's self-loathing.

Having said that, there's still a fine performance by Thandie Newton in the lead, and the always interesting David Thewlis does a fairly competent job as the eccentric pianist. But Bertolucci's inability to balance out the two halves of the story constituted by these performances impede the characters from reaching their full potential, and robs us of what could have been a fascinating drama.

score 6/10

Oblomov_81 12 February 2003

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0547987/