Despair review

A story about a chocolate factory owner but this is no Willy Wonka...

Reviews
By
Published

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Novel by Nabokov. Script by Tom Stoppard. Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Starring Dirk Bogarde. Got to be some kind of masterpiece, right? Well… no. Dating from 1978, Fassbinder’s first English-language film is frankly a mess.

Set in Berlin as the Nazis rise, it has Bogarde as an expat Russian chocolate magnate with a dumb, faithless wife (Andréa Ferréol) who, meeting a down-and-out he thinks is his double, decides to bump him off and steal his identity.

Everything about Despair feels queasily off – the plot, the acting, the dialogue and the fussily over-decorated sets.

Latest Videos FromGamesRadar+
LATEST ARTICLES
  1. 2B in Nier Automata
    1
    For Nier Automata, Yoko Taro just made the RPG he wanted to and "tried to stay hidden from Square Enix as much as possible"
  2. 2
    Rockstar reportedly reminded GTA 6's voice cast they're still under NDA after actor Stephen Root let slip he's in the game
  3. 3
    Final Fantasy 7 Revelation lead says the original 1997 RPG "is very much enshrined within the story," but newcomers can still jump in with the Remake trilogy
  4. 4
    Manor Lords publisher isn't worried about launching a game on GTA 6's release date - PC players "looking to steal cars" might check out its new management sim instead
  5. 5
    Marvel's Wolverine finally lets you turn off overbearing Scent Trails for side content, but "story-critical senses will still appear in the world"