acting is superb, and that brings the subtlety of Dostoevski's study of a friendship to light - each man has his own arrogance, and is willing to let others - in the case of the character player by Firth, who believes the womaniser has wronged him, allows a child to suffer as a pawn between them - we are prepared by his over-reaction to a woman's expression of irritation when he smokes on the train - he throws her dog out the moving train's window. who is the bad guy in this one? it is impossible not to be seduced, as all women are in his sphere, by the Roth character. Firth rarely lands a woman except by bullying, it appears. he constantly places himself in competition with the hands-down winner, Roth's character. what distressed me most is the unlikely voice that emerges from the Roth character's voice box - as a musician i can accept Roth in the part but the utterly unlikely voice dislocates the film. he is a scoundrel who we love. under-rated eerily muted film...
Review of The Perfect Husband
