SOURCE: Lezard, Nicholas. “Blue Cruise.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 4671 (9 October 1992): 19.

In the following review, Lezard faults the heavy-handed thematic content and poor dialogue in Bitter Moon.

[In Bitter Moon,] Nigel (Hugh Grant) and Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas) are a childless couple of seven itchy years, on a cruise to rejuvenate their marriage. Nigel meets Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner) in the ship's bar, vamped up and dancing to Peggy Lee singing “Fever”; thus we know, as subtly as if she were wearing a badge saying so, that she is no sexual slouch. She comes over to Nigel and says, “Okay, Nigel, amuse me. Say something funny.” To which Nigel, a twerp of the old school, can only say, “Blimey.”

On deck, Nigel meets Oscar (Peter Coyote), a wheelchair-bound American who, in a series of flashbacks, tells him his life story. Nigel wants Mimi (and you can tell, just by placing...