Snow Falling on Cedars
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Movie Reviews of Snow Falling on Cedars
Movie Review: An anguished, unrequited love story...
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a love story about an American girl of Japanese descent and a white American guy, set before, during and after World War II, in the Alaskan Pacific Northwest. Ishmael and Youki were childhood friends who spent hours together playing in the forests. Many years later, before Ishmael is drafted off to war, they get engaged. Ishmael is wounded in Europe and loses his arm. While recovering in the hospital overseas, Youki sends him a letter terminating their engagement. The letter was sent from an internment camp.After the war, Youki marries a Japanese American man. He is wrongfully accused of a murder. Ishmael, now a reporter, out of dedication to Youki, heroically investigates and solves the murder. It is clear that Ishmael is still passionate about Youki. He has had no other woman in his life. It seems that Youki has always loved Ishmael but has buried it.
Youki had terminated her relationship with Ishmael because of the difficulty of relations between white American and Americans of Japanese descent. Ishmael never accepted this but he accepted the fact that she was now married to someone else. Out of his dedicated love for her, he fights heroically to absolve her husband of the murder accusation.
I say Youki should have not have terminated the relationship. Lindy says, given the racial/social situation, Youki did the right think in dumping Ishmael.
The filmmakers seemed to borrow a little from "To Kill a Mockingbird," in the end. The whole Japanese-American community knows about Ishmael and Youki's youthful romance, and they know what he has done for her by saving her husband. In the final court room scene, all of the Japanese Americans in the spectators gallery stares at Ishmael in awe and silence.
The film is very well made. The cinematography is excellent.
Movie Review: LUSH ADAPTATION OF DIFFICULT BOOK
Summary: 4 Stars
One cannot deny the awesome beauty of some of the camerawork in this adaptation of David Guterson's SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS. SNOW FALLING was a slow, lethargic, but overall compelling novel; the movie version is the same. Scott Hicks' direction is frustrating yet magnificent at times. For instance, in Max von Sydow's brilliant summation, the camera never leaves Max's face, and the sequence is overwhelming due to the power of von Sydow's speech. It's a key highlight of the movie. However, earlier on, Hicks tries the overdubbing of too many key scenes; for instance, when Hasue is reading her letter, he overdubs it several times, and it becomes irritating rather than moving; he tries this on other occasions and as a gimmick, it doesn't improve the overall effect. The acting ensemble is marvelous: Ethan Hawke, though not as compelling as he should have been, does well in displaying his anger, hurt, frustration and love; Youki Kodoh as the wife of the accused is wonderful, her spritely demeanor hiding a gigantic love for her husband and for Hawke; Rick Yune (Die Another Day) shows the difficulty in expressing emotion as was taught by his father; James Rebhorn as the prosecutor is great, one of his best roles; James Cromwell does well as the judge in a poorly adapted role; Sam Shepard is very good as Hawke's idealistic father; Celia Weston evokes the nasty prejudice of the time as the victim's coldhearted mother; Richard Jenkins is good as the sheriff caught up in something he's not used to--murder; and Eric Thal is good as the victim, should have had a little more screen time to flesh out his role, and make us feel a little more for him.SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS is a lush, beautifully done film, with an Oscar worthy von Sydow performance; it's hard to stay with it, but if you do, I think you'll be rewarded.
Movie Review: Exceptional
Summary: 4 Stars
Adapting this novel with its tricky, time-shifting narrative was always going to be a big task, but Scott Hicks pulls it off. He and co-writer Ron Bass move quickly into the courtroom and wisely use the trial to drive the plot, telling the backstory - the real story in this case - through a finely-woven complex of flashbacks. The difficulty is that this story is a rich, long and emotional tale which requires a fair degree of exposition for it to be satisfying. The screenplay is superbly economical in this regard, but there is no escaping the fact that the only way to cover so much ground in a film of tolerable length is to fly over it at 30,000 feet. The necessarily distant treatment this requires only occasionally dilutes the emotional force which would have come from a more thorough and leisurely telling. Hicks compensates with a powerfully emotive score - this works, but it doesn't always hit the mark. Rather than engendering emotion, James Newton Howard's music is often so insistently overpowering that it locks the audience out. But that's a minor flaw in an otherwise excellent production. Overall, this is an intelligent and considered adaptation - probably the best that could be made from a novel which would have been incredibly difficult to bring to the screen. It's solidly acted, immaculately lit, and offers some of the most achingly beautiful imagery to illuminate the screen in years. (The opening sequence is magnificent.) Most rewarding of all is the fact that Hicks takes some real stylistic risks with this film. They don't always pay off, but when they do it's magical.Movie Review: Exquisitely Beautiful
Summary: 4 Stars
SFOC is an exquisitely beautiful picture. Cinematographer Robert Richardson who shot "The Horse Whisperers" does a phenomenal job of capturing the beauty of the Pacific Northwest winter. The film moves slowly from time to time like a walk through a beautiful art gallery and creates a meditative quality to the tale. Ethan Hawke is good as the conflicted Ishmael Chambers suffering from a wartime accident that left him with one arm, adjusting to life without his father, and carrying a torch for the Japanese girl who was his first love. Ultimately, this is a tale of sacrifice and true love. Sam Shepard as the father is wonderfully studious, a man of letters. Rick Yune as the Japanese man accused of murder is affecting and shows star quality in this performance. His wife, played by Yuki Kudoh, is also beautiful; her performance is touching. Max Von Sydow's final courtroom summation is one of the finest cinematic monologues you'll see. Director Scott Hicks who was making his first picture since the award-winning Shine did a great job with this lyrical tale. The DVD version doesn't offer a lot more, IMHO. Some of the alternate takes were hard for me to discern how they were different from the ones included in the film. Others seemed more obscure than illuminating. The commentary was interesting. I recommend this film on a patient night. With its wintery scenes, it's a nice change of pace in the sweltering summer. Enjoy!Movie Review: Very Good With Love Story Being Best Part
Summary: 4 Stars
I enjoyed this movie much more than the novel upon which it was based. This is very unusual for me as it is usually the reverse situation. What I liked best is epitomized on the cover of the box. It shows the heroine as a child and the hero as an adult, even though, in the film, they are at all times the same age. The film, however, shifts atmospherically from their shared life together as children, adolescents and lovers to their lives as full adults. The hero is having a harder time letting go of that shared time together than she is. As adults of around thirty, they are as apart as they once were together. Her same-race (Japanese American) husband is on trial in their town for murdering a local fisherman. The hero is bitterly alone and has taken over his late father's newspaper. That he lost his arm fighting in World War II is part of his bitterness. The trial is the weakest part of the film and I could have done with much less of it. The rest of the film is so beautifully brought to the screen that it is annoying when the "typical" trial scenes play. Normally I love Max Van Sydow, the trial lawyer, but I could have even dispensed with him. Gorgeous cinematography enhances this film greatly. Ethan Hawke, who plays the hero, seems to be choosing his roles very carefully. After this film, he went on to star in "Hamlet 2000", where he was spectacular.