If it had not been for the lack of an old wind-up gramophone playing Mozart, I might well have thought I was watching a revamped remade redone rechurned `Out of Africa', or some kind of variation on `Gorillas in the Mist'. If it had not been for some excellent photography, I might well have dozed off. Even Maurice Jarre's music did not seem much inspired, as it careered rather hesitatingly among various influences, and indeed the best was when the native chants took over. That, and an as-ever unconvincing lack-lustre Vincent Perez, together with a Kim Basinger who did ever so much to look enticing and not much else, left me wondering as to what the whole enterprise was up to.

The story itself seems to get lost in the probably overstretched biographical original tale of woe, and thus meanders about as if in a misty labyrinth in the Great Rift Valley. However much Italian aristocracy was purported to have been in on the events, they plainly became unstuck in this rather woolly-eyed misanthropic excursion which at times left me guffawing and ready to reach for my video copy of `Out of Africa', as so many of the scenes in this film seemed to have been borrowing chunks from that film and converting them to own use.

The film is right for those who just want a nice story or simply some really good photography, and preferably have not seen either of the other two mentioned films, which are both better.