A transplant of The Return of Martin Guerre into the post-Civil War South: an imposter, after six years away at war, i.e. two years longer than the war in its entirety, takes over the position of the local lout and landowner (a full-grown adult before his departure) and in his place spreads wealth, social enlightenment, and, in the conjugal boudoir, love and tenderness. Only Jethro, the family dog, doesn't welcome him home, and Jethro wakes up dead the very next morning. The original French version of the story -- said to be a true one -- was not swallowable in the first place, and although the remake has skipped over the problem of using different actors for the characters' different ages, it's no solution. At the same time, the new team of filmmakers, headed by director Jon Amiel and cinematographer Philippe Rousselot (unfurling several spectacular agrarian panoramas), have fabricated some new problems, laboring under the illusion that they have here the makings of a Classic Love Story, and, as the end nears, sifting through half-examined motives and half-articulated rationales to come up with a beau geste on the level of Sydney Carton's ascent to the guillotine in A Tale of Two Cities. The upshot is a Gothic-romantic hot-air balloon: colorful, big, fat, slow, empty, weightless. Jodie Foster, giving very generously to a thankless role, can be commended for showing less concern to look pretty than Richard Gere. (1993) — Duncan Shepherd
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