Japanese Story (2004)
Narrative derailment rarely comes more unfiltered than it does in this film, wherein a perfectly good film about two strangers watching their animosity turn into lust gets interrupted by A Big Life-Changing Event. To be fair, there's some good stuff in the first half, especially once the culture-clash nonsense subsides. And it's gorgeously filmed. (I think it's become clear that after this, Gerry, Twentynine Palms and Spring, Summer and the Others, I am officially a fan of striking nature photography.) But once A Big Life-Changing Event occurs, oh dear. The film becomes maudlin and stupid, with Toni Collette giving a performance that borders on the embarrassing. Imagine Twentynine Palms remade as a Lifetime movie, with the former's sense of subtlety and menace replaced by weepiness and a mistrust of the audience's intelligence (the film blatantly gives away its Big Life-Changing Event in the very first scene), and you're almost there.
Grade: C
Narrative derailment rarely comes more unfiltered than it does in this film, wherein a perfectly good film about two strangers watching their animosity turn into lust gets interrupted by A Big Life-Changing Event. To be fair, there's some good stuff in the first half, especially once the culture-clash nonsense subsides. And it's gorgeously filmed. (I think it's become clear that after this, Gerry, Twentynine Palms and Spring, Summer and the Others, I am officially a fan of striking nature photography.) But once A Big Life-Changing Event occurs, oh dear. The film becomes maudlin and stupid, with Toni Collette giving a performance that borders on the embarrassing. Imagine Twentynine Palms remade as a Lifetime movie, with the former's sense of subtlety and menace replaced by weepiness and a mistrust of the audience's intelligence (the film blatantly gives away its Big Life-Changing Event in the very first scene), and you're almost there.
Grade: C
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home