1.   As well as the two principal characters, there were a warrior, to do the calling away, and two attendants.

2.   The principal characters, Larissa Toren and Armel Santores, teach literature and literary theory at two equally radical universities.

3.   The title is, as the story reveals, the name of the principal character who is a man.

4.   In this story the principal character is a grumpy old house with a malevolent sense of humour.

5.   Although it tries to keep track of the principal characters and their checkered destinies, it is filled with manufactured coincidences, sudden lurches and gaping holes.

6.   At one point, a principal character will be seen watching a Volkswagen commercial, which is to then fill the screen and run in its entirety.

7.   But the movie, which imagines its principal characters as metaphorically ticking time bombs, never convincingly portrays their passions.

8.   Carr comes closest to creating an interesting persona, imbuing Marion with a sweetness and strength that would be enchanting if she were the principal character.

9.   Each of the three principal characters undergoes a subtle but decisive change and faces a life-defining choice at a scarily young age.

10.   Each of the five principal characters has individual pain with which to deal, dark secrets that are hardly appropriate for exposure to holiday light.