Deception (2021) review

Jewish-American novelist "Philip Roth" (Denis Podalydès), living in London in the late 1980's, has several "relationships" aside from his wife: he has an affair with an English woman (Léa Seydoux) who has an unhappy marriage, he consoles physically-ill Rosalie (Emmanuelle Devos), he talks to a Czech translator (Madalina Constantin) being recruited by an intelligence agency ... and eventually is put on trial for "misogyny."  Going all the way back to Goodbye, Columbus in 1969, almost every single filmmaker who's tried to adapt a Roth novel has done him a massive disservice (because his works are so pleasurable to read) and Desplechin tries but is unable to make it work: he seems to take him too "seriously," and the tone is definitely off ... but, like Pinecone and many of the other giants of literature, his gift at telling a story on the page isn't necessarily "translatable" to the cinematic medium.  I will continue to wait patiently for someone brave to at least attempt to film Sabbath's Theater....