The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) - "Unbearable", alright: an unbearably tedious (3 hours!) adaptation of the great Milan Kundera novel. The novel was about two things: philosophy and sex. Unfortunately, discussions about the existentialist quandry of lightness vs. heaviness (if life is meaningless, then we are light and free; if life is meaningful, then we are heavy and bound) don't work as effectively on screen as on the page, so all the philosophy's junked. What's left is borderline pornography - very professionally done, but still as boring and unerotic as most stuff that self-consciously tries to be "erotic" or even worse, "a celebration of the human body." What saves this movie from disaster is are the superb performances from the three leads, and the cinematography of Eastern Europe's charming cities. Daniel Day Lewis cuts a fine figure as a dashingly handsome womanizer - you know, the type of guy who can get away with having two women at the same time (damn them). The two female leads are perfectly cast, too. Lena Olin plays Sabina as the lusty, big-breasted, earthily liberated "light" side of the philosophical position; as Tereza, Juliette Binoche's waif-like, marble ethereal beauty suits the innocent, shy and self-conscious "heavy" side of the equation well, also.
Grade: C