COUSIN Bette (a severe-looking Lange) is very good - almost too good - at manipulating those around her in this adaptation of Honore de Balzac's exploration of passion and intrigue in a decadent society. The poor, spinster cousin to an aristrocratic family, Bette exerts powers of persuasion that are seemingly irresistable at some point or another to all the other main characters. Lange's performance hums in its intensity, whether she's scheming to launch her protege's career as a sculptor, or plotting her revenge on the Hulot family when her niece, Hortense (Kelly MacDonald) steals him away. The dramatic strains of the story are foreshortened, however, by the comic relief of Bob Hoskins and Hugh Laurie playing a wealthy lech and a bumbling fool, respectively. Elisabeth Shue's appearance as a brassy, prima donna courtesan confirms the bawdy direction of the tale. This is a lavish production, with sumptuous sets and costumes, a rich soundtrack, and a fine cast, with the possible exception of the sulky Aden Young, whose limp Wenceslas fails to justify the heights of passion to which Bette, Hortense and Jenny Cadine (Shue) are supposedly inspired. The pieces of the revenge plot fall a little too neatly into place, perhaps: how is it that Wenceslas, Jenny Cadine, Crevel (Hoskins), and all the members of the Hulot family are so easily swayed by her suggestions? Bette does not get her way all the time, however, and her disappointments testify to the limited social horizon of unmarried women in a society where money and connections are everything.