1.   Although well acted, with early scenes that deftly sketch the atmosphere, the movie, written by Carol Heikkinen, never takes off.

2.   Altman carries much weight on her shoulders, particularly in the early scenes.

3.   An early scene finds Gustavo contemplating himself in a mirror and imagining out loud that he can be anything he wants.

4.   An early scene sets the tone.

5.   An early scene shows Philippe attending a quadroon ball, where young women of color are shown off to potential rich white suitors.

6.   An epiphany more gradually achieved would have lent more natural tension to the early scenes.

7.   An early scene shows Mark watching a documentary on the AIDS Memorial Quilt and silently crying while sewing his own patch.

8.   And while the early scenes draw us in with their charming delineation of character, the film quickly degenerates into making jokes about steak sauce.

9.   At times the early scenes go by almost too fast to register.

10.   A lot of early scenes take place in England, and the extreme prejudice the British hierarchy hold toward the colonies is made evident.