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`Cousin Bette' focuses too much on image

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From: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Date: 19980625
Author:ELFRIEDA ABBE

"Cousin Bette," a period piece based on Honore de Balzac's novel, could use more bite and less architecture.

This literary escape from the Godzillas of summer resorts to its own brand of special effects lavish interiors, rustling silk costumes, a French burlesque theater, cobblestone streets and historic buildings. It's a handsome, if not compelling, movie. In this story of revenge, Jessica Lange is Cousin Bette, a poor, plain woman mistreated by her aristocratic relatives.

When her favored pretty cousin, who married the man Bette loves, dies, Bette fully expects to take her place as wife ...

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