The Triumph Of Love review

Love may triumph - but little else does in this sluggish, stagey adap of a work by 18th-century French dramatist Pierre de Marivaux.

Signs of promise flicker in the lively opening reel, in which Mira Sorvino's princess embarks on a cross-dressing crusade to wed the young prince whose throne was usurped by her own father. To succeed, she's got to seduce not only her would-be hubby but also his guardians: rationalist sibling duo Ben Kingsley and Fiona Shaw.

So farce, so good. But Triumph soon slows into an interminable piece of filmed theatre, helmer Clare Peploe (producer Bernardo Bertolucci's missus) refusing to open the play up for celluloid in any way. The cast give it their best shot but emotions are only yakked about, not felt. In fact, the viewer's empathy lies mostly with the modern-day audience Peploe cuts to every now and then, their blank, bored expressions saying all that needs to be said.