"Miranda", misbilled as a romance/thriller (no thrills in this flick),is really a dark romantic comedy about an enigmatic woman, Miranda (Ricci),who beguiles a male librarian (Simm) with her haunting beauty and mysterious ways. Long on style and short on story, this film spends most of its time with the title character, of course, which Ricci plays well. The film crashes, however, on story as Miranda is really a pain in the a** and not something we, the audience, are inclined to wish on the more likeable Simm character. Meanwhile, bits and pieces of a story are doled out with the dots never really connected at the end making anything beyond the romantic quest little more than window dressing. Recommended for Ricci fans or dark comedy weirdos. (B-)

First the good : this is a pleasantly original and mercurial little movie, miles away from your usual formulaic conman thriller or rom-com. There are some good jokes and lines - and yes, even the titles at the beginning are pretty funny. Also welcome is the satirical bite. The story is set in a Great-Britain where the rich and powerful can build (or tear down) anything that strikes their fancy, while average citizens are supposed to live without such self-indulgent luxuries as hospitals, swimming pools or libraries, because who needs mental and physical well-being ?

On second thoughts : perhaps I was wrong in using the words "satirical bite", this is a pretty accurate representation of societal reality - and not only in Great-Britain.

Sadly the movie does not live up to the potential promised by its original premise. It's clever, but not as clever as it thinks it is. A small example : the various swindles perpetrated are not exactly models of criminal cunning and satanic ingenuity. One cannot shake the suspicion that they would have been undone by even a minimum of vigilance and due diligence. The dialogue and narration too are remarkably uneven.

The various actors bravely do their best, but much of their enormous talent goes to waste. With such a stellar cast this could have been a tragicomic masterwork for the ages, but aah... The things that might have been...

A lonely librarian Frank(John Simm) who loves dreaming his life away suddenly meets the beautiful and mysterious Miranda(Christina Ricci) and immediately falls in love with her. As the two of them become closer, Frank starts finding out that Miranda isn't who he thought she was and that she leads a dangerous life with many different identities. I tried to like this movie because Christina Ricci is my favorite actress in the whole world but I just couldn't get into it. I really liked the first half hour or so of this movie but then the story started becoming boring and somewhat complicated. It seemed that this movie couldn't decide if it wanted to be a thriller, a romantic drama or a comedy. Everything was just kind of mixed together. I would give Miranda 6/10.