It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I don't exactly understand how "Bitter Moon" is not ensconced as Polanski's greatest achievement. Period. There are moments in this movie that are truly harrowing and more disturbing than any moment in "Rosemary' Baby"or "The Pianist". I saw this the first week it opened in NYC and I was the only person in the theater. I took a shower when I got home.

I have just finished reading the book and because of that it is impossible to objectively judge the movie. While it does make some very good points as a standalone movie, I must say that the book is far more powerful and more cruel. Of course I can understand that in order to attract an audience the story had to be softened, otherwise some people risk being totally horrified and walking sick out of the theater (and no, I am not referring to the detailed sexual perversions, but to the ordeal the man puts his woman through when he wants to create living hell for her).Furthermore, that semi-happy ending with the 2 characters hugging each other ruined everything and has nothing to do with the original plot.Just so we're clear, I don't think this is a bad movie, on the contrary, it brings a whole new perspective on how thin the line between love, obsession and hatred really is. However, the book does a much better job.

Not as much as underrated as much as forgotten, "Bitter Moon" is a stellar portrayal of a dysfunctional marital relations ans a story of the edge between love and madness which opens the question whether love can make all of us madmen. The movie contains powerhouse performances from all actors involved and the fact that whole plot is happening on a boat leaves a sense of claustrophobia and suffocating. However, the real story and background lie in the flashbacks of a leading actor, played by Peter Coyote whose intimate confession to a fellow passenger (played by Hugh Grant) about his marriage, pushes Hugh's character in a bizarre triangle between his own wife (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) and Peter's character's wife (played by Emmanuelle Seigner). Both married couples are faced with desire, self-destruction and deceit in this poignant drama, which does carry a recognisable trademark of its director, Roman Polanski.

Sometimes, I just don't get it. How can such a brilliant director do one of the worst movie i've ever seen? Even more: how can people who love Polanski love this? It looks like it's not even from him.Let me explain myself:There is that "oh so British" couple cruising on a boat, where they met a guy in wheelchair and his young femme fatale wife, who turns Hugh Grant on. Her husband warn him about how cruel she is and how much he should stay away from her... by doing this: telling his old overly romanticized love story with her, the perfect french girl, "a mix between sexual maturity and naiveté".And of course it's by never-ending flashbacks in Paris where-every-flat- has-a-view-on-the-Eiffel-Tower with all the clichés that ever existed about Paris/french women. His love story turns into a porn-chic/BDSM relationship with so much details we can make an actual porn out of it. The most twisted it gets, the better it is. And the more predictable too.And of course it turns Hugh Grant on even more. And what about his wife? That's it, NOTHING about her character. Nothing more, in fact, about Grant's character either. And no real consistency in the main characters too.No psychology, no depth, no real scenario... FOR MORE THAN TWO HOURS. The photography is not even good! And it got so tacky and old with that Vangelis music, GOD!Maybe i would have been less strict if it wasn't from Polanski, but this guy made Chinatown, Repulsion, Tess, some of the best movies ever! Do yourself a favor and avoid this one.