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A Promise

French director Patrice Laconte’s first English-language effort

In pre-WWI Germany, a smart, upwardly mobile executive secretary (Richard Madden) to a rich industrialist (Alan Rickman) falls in love with the boss’s much younger wife (Rebecca Hall). Society being as buttoned-up as it was, they content themselves with meaningful stolen glances (lots of them) until he is sent off to Mexico.

The war inconveniently prevents his return or even communication. I kept waiting for something to happen. It doesn’t. Not a single bodice ripped. The camera work’s crappy. Sorry, but French director Patrice Laconte’s first English-language effort is a Big Bore. Japanese title: Kureai. (94 min)