Inspired by Diane Johnson's deft novel, writer/director James Ivory and his longtime writing collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, delve into the American habit of direct, blunt communication as opposed to the French penchant for subtle indirection and amusement with the entanglements of infidelity. "Everything is worse when the French are involved," observes Stephen Fry as a British art appraiser. But there are too many subplots and too many extraneous characters - both of which dilute this glossy, genteel, if clumsy, comedy of manners. While Sam Waterston and Stockard Channing embody the girls' provincial parents with Leslie Caron ("An American in Paris") as the calm, aristocratic Gallic matriarch, Matthew Modine is inexplicably deranged as the distraught, gun-toting American husband of Charles-Henri's current infatuation. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Le Divorce" is a serenely smart, sophisticated 7. Breaking up is hard to do in any language, even if you can afford to pay $900 for a family luncheon.