The Chatterley Affair (2007)

Before 1960, there was no ''swinging'' London. That all changed with the sensational obscenity trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover, D.H. Lawrence's sexually explicit novel about a love affair between a worldly man and a naive young woman. With The Chatterley Affair, screenwriter Andrew Davies — best known for popcorn flicks like Bridget Jones's Diary and Notting Hill — envisions a fictional affair between two jury members. The premise is intriguing (the actions of Davies' lovers echo those of the novel's central couple), and the visuals are sumptuous. Yet the film, produced last year for the BBC, relies on a distasteful amount of nudity, and the dialogue is more appropriate to a prom-night deflowering (''That was a nice f---ing'') than a sophisticated adult romance. EXTRAS A serviceable doc on the trial and a bland Lawrence bio. Like Affair itself, they fall short. C