It seems like a good baby=boomer escapist package: Redgrave, Fox, Thurman, but take a director who's unsuited to romantic meringues, a cast with no chemistry, and a script in which so little happens that a month by the lake seems stretch into a decade; and you're in trouble. Edward Fox seems sensible casting as the correct British major, but he's awkward, unconvincing, and made to play most scenes too large or too thin. Ms Redgrave, despite the 1937 setting is wearing clothes she bought in Hampstead last week, and carries on like an over-excited schoolgirl. Perhaps all the fun was contained within the set. She's unconvincing, as is her relationship with Mr Fox, which, unfortunately is the glue of the story. Her rival for his affections is Uma Thurman, who distinguishes herself by giving a misguided reading of every line she has to utter. She can't even wave goodbye convincingly. Every moment she's on screen is excruciatingly wrong. The director takes a cack-handed approach to the tone of almost every scene; the structure is awkward, and even the close-ups of the two leads are unflattering and clumsy - especially those of Mr Fox. Alida Valli, manages to be Irvin-proof; Nicola Piovani provides some sweet, schmaltzy music and Pasqualino de Santis's photography is very pretty.

I do not understand the people that say this is a good movie. I guess the potential is there... but it flopped big time. The only good thing about this movie is Redgrave. Oh yeah... and the hot young Italian she shuns...Storyline: older lady likes older man. Older man likes younger woman. Younger woman leads on older man. Audience falls asleep.Why anyone likes the older man is beyond comprehension. He is unattractive in so many ways. He has one of the most unlikeable personalities ever. And I don't mean that you will come to understand his quirky ways later in the movie... you don't. He is just as unlikeable in the end as he is in the beginning. Ms. Redgraves character is so enamored with him for NO reason at all. I don't understand it. He is not witty, polite, smart, anything... ick.Uma's character is pointless, mean and well... pointless and mean.Maybe the book was better than the movie. The movie stunk.

Warning: Spoilers of sorts.Beautiful, lush sets and scenery.Characterizations of oddball characters bounce all over the map.Uneven direction from a director whose right hand doesn't seem to know what his left hand is doing. Or care. Script is nothing to shout about either.Strangely non-affecting. Not especially amusing, not especially romantic, not even a little bit sexy. It's a bit of a mystery why the two main characters are attracted to one another or why they end up together.Odd, off-hand treatment of impending war.A collection of truly bizarre performances. Normally reliable actors run amok. No doubt the director's and screenwriter's faults.A film that tries hard, very hard, too hard and doesn't succeed. Can't really recommend, but on the other hand, it's not a complete waste of time. It apparently has its audience.

And for me, that's what movies are all about, whether it be the Disney Cinderella that was my first movie ever, or this last, A Month by the Lake, that is the place I want to be, in some other realm outside my own experience. And this movie fulfills that desire on many fronts and also kept me guessing from beginning to end.The performances of the cast were extraordinary in the most difficult of materials, an understated script and the repressive natures of the leads. Vanessa Redgrave -playing Miss Bentley, a beyond middle-age spinster of uncertain age - does much with this. In her outwardly almost flirtatious behaviour you catch the loneliness within, but barely. You determine she does have an interest in pursuing the major, she hears his voice in a dining room and then goes in slow pursuit but practically stands him up on the first 'date' and for no earthly reason we can determine.Edward Fox - playing Major Wilsaw a retired colonel from WW1 - has the major down pat, the peacocky walk, the clipped sentences, the fear lurking behind the eyes, all embodying the pre-war world of 1937 in Italy on Lake Como. Uma Thurman, in one of her first 'airings' plays Miss Beaumont, a young woman taking a position as a nanny to a wealthy Italian family staying at the same resort as Miss Bentley and Major Wilshaw who flirts one thinks rather cruelly with the Major leading him on in boredom but does she, we wonder, when the movie takes off in unexpected directions.Vanessa is sexy and wonderful, you sense there is an unstated other life underlying her character as there is with Major Wilshaw. Uma is the ingénue of a kind, an unmanageable young woman, incorrigible as another era would have it, sent to straighten herself out in Europe far away from disgracing her family in America. She is the innocent abroad, or is she. She assumes an avid interest in the photographs Miss Bentley takes of the young man in love with Miss Bentley (a scene contrived by Miss Bentley) and is astounded at Miss Bentley's capacity to captivate. It meanders along from there with beautiful cinematography and an unforgettable tennis game. Too slow moving for many tastes. Wonderful eccentric characters - too odd for some - played to the hilt by a stellar cast. 8 out of 10.