A film that carries a near-impossible load of anticipation and expected brilliance, is not, in fact, the second coming of Citizen Kane.

If, as Freud once said, all women secretly long to be raped, then French director Catherine Breillat would argue that

Ass Cancer.

Sean Penn’s latest from the director’s chair is long and occasionally bumpy, but in the end, stands as one of the most striking portraits of self-delusion in years.

The end of life is defined by regret and sorrow, and for Marianne (Liv Ullman) and Johan (Erland Josephson), characters we first came to know in 1974’s Scenes from a Marriage, such certainties hold firm.

Like most “Simpsons” adherents, I was expecting this film to be an utter disaster. The TV show has sunk to the credibility and integrity of a Mexican infomercial, without being nearly as entertaining.