Be a little patient: What builds beneath this quiet exterior, shot through with dark wit, is a haunting examination of the price that romantic idealism can exact.

Plenty emerges as an absorbing and fastidiously made adaptation of David Hare's acclaimed play, but also comes off as cold and ultimately unaffecting.

Whether or not you buy the message, it's a work that qualifies as epic, and reveals Hare as a great Romantic.

Plenty is a film alive with ideas.