The Cat’s Meow: the concept of Peter Bogdanovich’s film sounds intriguing: the (fictionalized, apparently) account of a weekend yacht cruise with people such as Chaplin, Hearst and Louella Parsons present, where a famous Hollywood death happened. The film, however, is mean-spirited towards all its characters, making every single one of them unattractive, self-centered, and dull. Not even a more interesting cast would be able to make lemonade out of those lemons, and this cast is generally non-descript at best; Kirsten Dunst, the top-liner, fares slightly better than the others as actress and Hearst’s lover Marion Davies. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel moves the camera effectively between the many groups of characters, but the film is always lit too brightly. The work of both production designer Jean-Vincent Puzos and costume designer Caroline de Vivaise is well-done but far from memorable.