LaBute's follow-up to In The Company Of Men is less agonising but
equally misanthropic, as the writer-director moves from predatory
sexual drama to a seriocomic but deeply unhopeful look at the
artificiality of relationships. It's hectoring and schematic at
times, particularly in the motif of the restoration comedy Stiller is
directing, which invites obvious parallels with the situation of the
film's characters. Terrifically acted though, except by the miscast
Kinski, and unexpectedly dynamised by Patric as the narcissistic
lothario whose set-piece revelation is as starkly horrifying as
anything in the previous film.
