ISABEL Walker (Kate Hudson) arrives in Paris from America to stay with her heavily pregnant sister Roxeanne (Naomi Watts), whose hot-headed husband Charles-Henri de Persaud (Melville Poupaud) has just walked out to be with his Russian mistress, Magda (Rona Hartner).

Roxeanne is devastated and is glad of her sister's emotional support.

After an evening of tears and soul-searching, the Walker girls revel in the Parisian nightlife, and Isabel catches the eye of charming ladies' man Edgar Cosset (Thierry Lhermitte), who just happens to be the brother of Roxeanne's mother-in-law.

Edgar soon woos Isabel between the sheets and she agrees to become his mistress, on the strict understanding that their families remain blissfully oblivious to their liaisons.

While Isabel secures work as a PA to literary ex-pat Olivia Pace (Glenn Close), Roxeanne has to contend with the threatening advances of ' American husband Tellman (Matthew Modine), who seems to blame Roxeanne for his wife's infidelity.

Meanwhile, Charles-Henri's scheming mother (Leslie Caron) plots to get her hands on a valuable painting which has been in the Walker family for centuries, sparking a bitter war of words between the two clans.

Le Divorce is Merchant Ivory at their most frothy, flippant and forgettable.

This is a satire on the divergent social customs of the American and European sets.

For Isabel, Roxeanne and the rest of the Walkers, an adulterous affair is unthinkable. For Edgar, it's the most natural thing in the world.

Sadly, these insights into the clash of cultures nip rather than bite.

Hudson is the one thing which keeps us watching.

Without her, le Divorce would be dull as Parisian dishwater.

Rating: 4/10

DAMON SMITH