Vatel

Despite a sturdy, occasionally subtle performance from Depardieu, cast (predictably) as the life-loving master of entertainments, burdened by his debt-ridden aristo employer (Glover) with the responsibility of providing food, music, theatre, etc, for the visiting Louis XIV (Sands), this tepid costumer is as much a hollow, purposelessly extravagant spectacle as the court shenanigans it depicts. The plot, such as it is, centres on the triangular romantic/sexual intrigues between principled lady-in-waiting Thurman, salt-of-the-earth Depardieu, and the king's malicious righthand wig Roth. For a movie about food, sensuality and passion, it's strikingly undernourished.