The Magus

A starry cast and flashily glossy location photography can't disguise the fact that this version of John Fowles' novel (from a screenplay by the author himself) is a muddled disaster. The rather silly, semi-mystical tale of humans on a Greek island being manipulated by Quinn's mysterious Doctor Conchis may have worked well enough in print, but on film (and only about half of the book is actually used) it seems pretentious, insubstantial, and sometimes barely comprehensible.