[...] in spite of an edit supervised by Francis Ford Coppola -- cutting the film down from more than three hours for this international version -- the drama fails to rise to the heights of the production design. The film, from Sony Pictures Classics, is a Coppola/American Zoetrope presentation of a Prommitr International production. Sony marketing execs are doubtlessly calculating that its grandiose visuals will so dazzle American audiences they'll overlook the pedestrian plotting.

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