Perhaps the key to Le Divorce is the restaurant scene in the last third: the rubes from Santa Barbara dine on expensively produced, elegantly prepared and presented dishes, and then argue about the gratuity. There just isn't any substance to this movie, no more than there is in the food.

I found myself asking, "Why did the filmmakers want to make this movie? What did they see in it that they haven't conveyed to me?"

[Upon further reflection:]

Some of the blame must be laid with Kate Hudson as Isabel, the visiting sister. Her playing is so cool, so flat, that we ascribe a hidden sensibility to her that just isn't there. We never fully understand why she embarks on an affair with Edgar. Then, much later, when Edgar quotes Emerson to her in a gentle effort to brush her off, she at first seems to take the hint, dropping the key to their love nest through the mail slot. When he returns from a business trip, we are genuinely confused when she acts as if the affair is still on. What is she really thinking and feeling? Hudson never lets us know.

posted: 8:39:48 AM