UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, (15, Entertainment In Video). Starring: Kathy Bates, Rupert Everett, Jonathan Pryce, Stephanie Beacham, Richard Briers, Dan Aykroyd.

GRACE Beasley (Bates) is a middle-aged Chicago housewife, who selflessly tends to her fractured family. Her only pleasure in life is Victor Fox (Pryce), a Welsh crooner with a voice like an angel. Grace's life is turned upside down when her husband Max (Aykroyd) declares he is leaving her to seek excitement in his life. Soon after, Victor is murdered. With nothing to lose, Grace travels to the Welsh Valleys to attend her musical idol's funeral, where she discovers that Victor was gay and his loyal valet Dirk (Everett) was in fact his long-term lover.

Unconditional Love is a film with a serious identity crisis. The tone veers wildly from tragedy to comedy, but never once rings emotionally true. What begins as a rites-of-passage drama for Bates's much abused housewife quickly becomes an America-meets-Blighty culture clash comedy, then detours into convoluted whodunit.

Published: 08/04/2004