Harlequin

The multi-headed beast of international packaging got its fangs into the struggling Australian film industry and spat out this lump of drivelling horror. The potentially interesting notion of re-running the Rasputin legend in the context of a modern political campaign is sunk by a dumb script, a lot of telekinetic flummery, and a performance from Robert Powell which desperately lacks the sense of irony that might at least have transformed his studded leather and mascara into high camp instead of the simply ridiculous. With its English leads, its supporting cast dubbed into American, and its carefully non-specific locations, the whole miserable thing founders somewhere in mid-Pacific. CPea.