There's an old folk belief or superstition about the seventh year of a marriage being critical in the life of that marriage. Somebody even wrote a play about this--The Seven Year Itch--a comedy that had some success on the stage and later in the movies. Bitter Moon is about a couple successfully completing seven years in their marriage and celebrating with an ocean cruise to be followed with a plane trip to India. We get a couple of shots of their cruise ship, obviously a fake little toy bouncing around in a tank. The movie is fake too and so stunningly dull, despite all the attempts by Roman Polanski to mold his quartet of uninteresting lead actors into the cinematic equivalent of that well-known group in Rigoletto. However, in Bitter Moon there is no such feeling of ensemble performing.
Peter Coyote, who tells Hugh Grant at excruciating length the story of his relationship with his wife/mistress played by Emanuelle Seigner gives ample evidence of why he is an unsuccessful author. Grant is trite and totally unconvincing as the unwilling listener who is gradually drawn away from thinking about the joys of his seven-year marriage and into the orbit of the Coyote and Seigner characters and their kinky sexual relationship. These guys are so dysfunctional. The women they are hooked up with are the same, as they graphically show us in the film's climax. My favorites were the gentleman from India and his little girl, but they were only in a couple of scenes.
Peter Coyote, who tells Hugh Grant at excruciating length the story of his relationship with his wife/mistress played by Emanuelle Seigner gives ample evidence of why he is an unsuccessful author. Grant is trite and totally unconvincing as the unwilling listener who is gradually drawn away from thinking about the joys of his seven-year marriage and into the orbit of the Coyote and Seigner characters and their kinky sexual relationship. These guys are so dysfunctional. The women they are hooked up with are the same, as they graphically show us in the film's climax. My favorites were the gentleman from India and his little girl, but they were only in a couple of scenes.