Richard's Things (1980)

After her husband Richard (Mark Eden) dies suddenly from a heart attack, his wife (Liv Ullmann) discovers he was having an affair. She confronts his mistress (Amanda Redman) but after the initial hurt and anger, they slowly form an attachment to each other as a way of keeping Richard alive. The film would seem to have everything going for it: one of the world's greatest actresses in Ullmann, directed by an award winning director Anthony Harvey (THE LION IN WINTER), shot by a master cinematographer Freddie Young (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA), a screenplay by an Oscar winning screenwriter Frederic Raphael (DARLING), a score by the great Georges Delerue (JULES AND JIM). So what went wrong? The film seems to think it's more profound than its mediocrity reveals. The film is past the halfway mark before it gets remotely interesting but by then its squandered whatever good will it might have built up. The rather trite dialogue defeats the great Ullmann but positively demolishes poor Redman who can do no better than a one dimensional performance. To the film's credit, its depiction of a Lesbian relationship between the wife and the mistress is treated without sensation and rather affectionately. Still, for all the talent involved, shouldn't we get more than just another love story? With Tim Pigott-Smith, Elizabeth Spriggs, David Markham and Ian McDiarmid.