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What a terrific film. Thoughtful, insightful, beautifully performed, and a few belly laughs. Mr. Menzel's hand, I'm happy to report, is steady, confident, and occasionally inspired. (And while this may not be of interest to everyone on this board, it's worth reporting that this movie is teeming with beautiful naked European women.)

I love the three Menzel's films I've seen, but not this one yet. I'm going to download it because, of course, here in my town it's DUBBED

It's an easy film to pick holes in if you're in a suitably sour-faced mood (it's a pale shadow of the novel, and that's certainly not true of many of Menzel's other adaptations), but it was such a rare pleasure seeing one of the cinema's few remaining Renoiresque humanists returning to exactly the kind of territory he's always been most comfortable in that I enjoyed it pretty much unreservedly.

I caught the recent London premiere with Jiří Menzel himself in attendance, and posted notes on the Q&A here.

That's a good way of putting it.

It doesn't stand up to Menzel's best work, but it's pleasantly enjoyable nonetheless.