Real Movie Review-Movie Reviews, Movie Quotes, Movie Trivia

Director: Francois Girard

Starring: Michael Pitt, Kiera Knightley, Alfred Molina, Koji Yakusho, Sei Ashina

Writer/director Francois Girard, of The Red Violin Fame, based this screenplay on Alessandro Baricco’s novel and has created a beautiful, but painfully slow, period piece. The scenes here are beautiful, but often have a dark and morose feel, that is compounded by lead Michael Pitt’s slow speaking style and the languid piano score. The characters are not developed enough to the viewer to really care what happens to them and, while the story held my interest for a time, it was just too damn slow and had lost most of my attention before its big finish.

Michael Pitt (no relation to that other Pitt, acting guy), is a young Frenchman named Herve Joncour, who finds himself recruited to become a silkworm trader in for his partner, Baldabiou (Alfred Molina). This profitable, but difficult business sends Joncour on several long journeys to Japan, taking him away from his professed love, Helene, played by Kiera Knightley, who is yet to make a film that I really like. Oh well, a lot of people really liked those Pirate movies, I guess. Anyway, Herve travels back and forth to Japan a few times and forms some kind of relationships with a powerful Japanese ruler, Hara Jubie (Koji Yakusho) and an un-named servant played by Sei Ashina. I never really quite bought into any of the character relationships here, and in a film like this, that is a big problem.

Beauiful camera work and pretty good performances here, but unless you are a dedicated fan of period pieces like Seven Years in Tibet (with that other Pitt guy), you are likely to find this one too slow, without a really engrossing story to carry you along its uphill path. Some may like it, but for me, this comes a distant second to a good nap. Come to think of it, it can help you to have one of those.

Comments are closed.