A Month by the Lake

Adapted from a romantic interlude by HE Bates, this is so flat and passionless that, without the warm glow of the cinematography and the deliriously romantic Italian settings, it would almost certainly have been consigned to video. Lake Como, 1939. Miss Bentley (Redgrave) is holidaying with her Italian friends on the shore of her favourite lake. Lonely and bored, she soon perks up when she notices the rugged looks of the only other English visitor present, Fox's starchy Major Wilshaw. The two meet, chat, play tennis, and romance might have blossomed, were it not for the arrival of fickle, flirtatious American nanny Miss Beaumont (Thurman, twitchy). Still, even though Miss Bentley feels rejected by the major's lack of interest in her, she's chuffed when she in turn attracts the attention of local youth Vittorio (Gassman). Thus unfolds a four-way tangle, age difference the theme. This day-by-day account of month-long holiday romances does not fit comfortably into 91 minutes, and after the fourth al fresco breakfast, your eyes wander past the characters to focus on the views behind.