The Designated Mourner

Bolstered by a trio of outstanding performances, David Hare has done a terrific job translating actor-playwright Wallace Shawn's slightly muddleheaded stage play to film. In an unidentified country at an unspecified time, two ghosts and one survivor of an obscure cultural revolution assemble in a spare room. Howard (David de Keyser) is an elderly dissident poet; Judy (Miranda Richardson) is his cultured and devoted daughter; and Jack (Mike Nichols) is her husband, a failed academic. Addressing the camera, but barely speaking to one another, the three chronicle the fall of a regime, the breakup of a marriage and the crumbling of one's sense of self. Jack does most o...