The Misadventures of Margaret

Seeking her maiden adventure in Paris, Margaret - nothing if not ditzy - contrives to hook up with an Englishman. Seven years later, marriage and NY literary success have not steadied her nerves, and in the glare of fortune Margaret (Posey) looks at herself and at Edward (Northam) and wonders: has this gentlemanly professor used up the best years of her life? Her next project offers a chance to vent her frustrations, especially on a research trip to France. Whatever the merits of Cathleen Schine's comic novel Rameau's Niece, this adaptation fails to fire up. The chief problem is the film's inability to gain any distance from its flighty heroine: people's interior lives may well be this inchoate, but simply replicating the confusion on screen is hardly art. Posey's doolally schtick is too much, and Northam's sweet but drippy hubbie hardly a foil.