What’s worse: when a movie is just kinda “eh,” or when a movie starts out fucking fantastic and then descends into the abyss of “please, God, make this end soon?” This movie is the latter. It is 1798 and French soldiers are fucking around in Egypt, blowing shit up and making grand statements. Then one soldier gets lost and finds himself isolated in the desert, going batty. He finds shelter and water, but it is guarded by a leopard. He forms a relationship with this leopard that goes to unexpected places. This is all based on a Balzac novella and, in the hands of a competent director, has the potential to be fantastic. Much of it is fantastic — it looks spectacular. Most movies shot on location in the elements do, and this is no exception. But whereas “Walkabout” or “The Naked Prey” or anything by Terrence Malick uses stunning natural imagery to work as counterpoint to an engaging story about real characters, Lavinia Currier is keeping his/her (unsure) fingers crossed that the imagery will be so stunning that no one will notice we have no connection to the people on the screen. Another big problem: bad dialogue. And too much dialogue. Example: soldier and naturalist are lost in the desert. Naturalist takes the last of the water to mix with art supplies to make paint. We see all this in loving detail. Then Mr. Soldier looks at the naturalist, throws him on the ground and declares, “You used the last of our water to mix paints!!!!” How this made it past the first cut I have no idea. I wish there was a way that I could have only seen the first half — not that the second half is worse as a film, but it is only after a while that you realize you are watching something kinda half-assed.