Looks to me like old man Bertolucci is losing his hand. His chronicles of unrequited love and passion gone mad have grown ever less poignant since "Last Tango" (his apex IMHO), as "Stealing Beauty" had shown us before. Here we have an implausible refugee (carried out with talent by the still not mature, though very promising, Thandie Newton) from an imaginary African nation meet with her also unlikely English landlord and boss (in Rome, of all places!) and how the story of their difficult relationship unfolds. Add to that some vague references to political disturbance in said imaginary country and a distant husband held as a political prisoner, stir well and presto: instant artistic film with political undertones. Sadly, inspiration was not one of the ingredients in the mixture and the result shows: not so subtle camera tricks, sparse and boring dialogue. View it if you must (if you are a fan of Bertolucci's, as I confess to being) but this is far away from his best.
