Grade: B

Verdict: Too long, but at least it's long on charm as well.

Details: Starring Jeanne Balibar and Sergio Castellitto. Directed by Jacques Rivette. Rated PG-13 for brief nudity and sexual themes. In French with subtitles. Two hours, 30 minutes.

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Review: "Va Savoir" ("Who Knows?") would probably be a lot more appealing to mainstream American audiences if a good 45 minutes were lopped off.

However, at 73, Jacques Rivette, an old master from the New Wave, just isn't a lopping-off kind of guy. In fact, at a mere 150 minutes, "Va Savoir" is a little on the short side for him.

"Va Savoir" may be long, but it's not especially deep. Nor is it meant to be. Rivette has fashioned a playful romantic-comedy roundelay in which six characters go in search of love and sex, old manuscripts and new (or renewed) passions.

Camille (Jeanne Balibar), a French actress who's been away from Paris for three years, returns home after working in Italy. She and her actor-director-lover Ugo (Sergio Castellitto) are co-starring in a production of a Pirandello play.

Camille shakes things up when she seeks out her ex, Pierre (Jacques Bonnaffe), an academician who's now living with Sonia (Marianne Basler), a ballet instructor.

To top it all off, these real-life dramas, and several others, are interspersed with scenes from the Pirandello play in performance. Life and art mirror each other.

"Make me as you desire me," implores Camille's character in the play. She speaks for all these deliciously mixed-up lovers in this slow but savvy look at what we do for love. Even if it isn't love after all.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service