So much average

People are voting emotionally.

An Exercise In Nonsense

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Have you ever had a conversation with somebody whose voice was so monotone, so breathy, that they almost put you to sleep while you stood there and listened to them? That's the case with Michael Pitt here, whose low speaking narration pretty much gave me a headache from the temples because of its exaggerated gentility. He's a handsome young man, but his screen presence is a negative here, perhaps explaining as to why I never heard of him. With Keira Knightly being a more well known star, I'd expected her to be the lead, but like the Japanese beauty (Sei Ashina) whom Pitt becomes obsessed with, barely gets to say a word. Gratuitous moments of "gentle, loving sex" become simply eye rolling as another crescendo of oh so sweet music plays over the ecstasy that only the characters feel. I hate long recitals of poetry, but that would be more fascinating than the pace that this creeks by in. It's a sight to behold photography wise, but in other aspects, oh what a bore! The music strives too hard to be profound and the long bouts of silence between dialog makes it a struggle to get through. I would have liked more political exposition of the closed 1860's Japanese society, but limited attempt is given to aide the viewer in getting any real example of what had really gone on during that time period. Only Alfred Molina seemed to try to give some passion, and he's rather wasted.Too many films post millennium think that all they need is an exotic setting, romantic characters, and a mist of a plot to have a movie. What ends up happening is that the audience is lost either in the sleepy mood music or too busy looking at the art direction, and any attempt at real cohesion ends up missing. This us one reason I have stopped going to the movies and even caring about the award season, because in the attempt to be artistic or profound, they've just become an empty emotional shell of pretty colors and nothing to really grip its audience.

Sure this one hasn't a fighting / military content but there's a lot of closeness as well: the period, the trips to Japan, the discovery of a another world and also an another love. Likewise, the Japanese way of life is depicted with full of poetry and Yakamoto's soundtracks recalls Zimmer's one. Keira plays the devoted young wife waiting patiently for her husband to come back from his endless trips. So we don't see her often and honestly, if the first trip is interesting, watching the others was tiring and totally repetitive! If « last samurai » moved me deeply with this simple life, here i was quickly bored as the cast isn't great and the hollow missions takes places in winter ! The only connection I had was to marvel about those Japanese wood houses because if the technology is simple, their design is much more complex than our poor cabin and prefigure the mind of this people for electronic.

I was getting really irritated with this film about 3/4 of the way through because it seemed to be heading in a very stereotypical and predictable direction, but then it shifted and ended in a way that I found surprising in the best sense of that word - I was glad that it was not what I expected and I was glad that it surprised me. It IS slow, but not in a bad way - it's very beautiful and contemplative and some movies deserve a slower pace. I don't think that Michael Pitt was perfectly cast, and although I think he's quite talented, I think another actor might have given the character more gravitas and substance. But he doesn't ruin the film. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but if you don't mind a slower paced film and you like historical movies, it's very much worth seeing.

What a sad flop, with the best of intentions. The message to the viewer is overly clear, it shouts: this is an artistic, slow and sensuous movie, contrasting Oriental philosophy with Western greed for speed and immediate effects. Well, yes, we get this rather soon, and then we suffer through the rest… Perhaps slow movies are not exact equivalents of slow food, after all. There are some redemptive traits, though. The film could be see as an illustration of Joyce Carol Oates's observation that "prolonged happiness is a prison from which the self yearns to escape at any cost". People cannot stand a prolonged happiness, and the protagonist says so much himself. Another (attempt at) redemption: perhaps the movie is about the temptations of Orientalism typical for the era portrayed: the Western men, bored to tears, looking for any kind of adventure that the exotic Orient could offer them. Because if it is a love story, it is Hélène's love story, but if so, it is underdeveloped. The other "love story" is too ridiculous even to consider.Finally: it is true that seeing it in with a full screen can help; I have watched it as DVD, and although it was a very good screen, it could not reproduce the immersion effect possible on a large screen only.