This excellently written, splendidly acted, marvellously sound-tracked and beautifully filmed picture is most probably the best film ever made on Chopin and Sand, that subject most difficult to approach without crashing into drab sentimentality. The film is a comedy solidly anchored in historical and biographical data and impregnated with a deep love for Chopin's music as well as an understanding of the complex relationship between him and Sand. Through its apparently light touch, the film manages to convey deep sorrow, longing, extatic joy and true sensuality (the scene where the relationship between Chopin and Sand becomes physical is a master example of how such scenes should be made: Sand's naked shoulder speaks more than hours and hours of steamy make-believe, because it is the spectator who fills in the experience in his mind). Anybody who has made music will recognise the excitement and satisfaction in the scene where Chopin and Liszt play à quatre mains and manage to find JUST the right note at JUST the right second. Witty, almost farcical comedy alternates with most delicate, expressive, sober dialogue - witness Judy Davis' face when Sand tells Chopin what the reality behind her free love propaganda is. Hugh Grant shows himself once again to be the good actor that he is when working with a good director - compare this film with "Maurice", "The Remains of the Day", "An Awfully Big Adventure". It is as if this film were an enchanted one, not a single element being amiss. And last but not least, it makes you fall in love with Chopin's music, in case for some reason it hadn't happened to you before.
