Score: 7.3
This is a beautifully shot movie with a quite horrible script. And that about sums it up. From the opening few shots, through to the end, the camera and lighting work is exquisite - all the details are illuminated, the play between shadow and light is immaculate, the scenery is the character that constantly dominates every shot, and the landscapes are simply mesmerizing to a prototypical Western viewer who has never been to the Chinese countryside (myself included). Unfortunately, the landscape is too big a character in this novel-come-movie, which would have sufficed in far easier times as a parable play. As it stands it's merely a set of really great shots, with some decent acting but relatively little characterization.
Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh, but considering Edward Norton's character declares his love for Naomi Watts after dancing a single time with her (which the audience isn't even privy to), you can tell this isn't a story big on back-story or character development. It's merely taking cliches (the simple but beautiful woman and the intelligent but not so good with women scientist) and thrusting them onto a backdrop where they have yet to be fully played out - Colonial China in the 1920's, with Cholera to boot. The tale of love, betrayal and reconciliation is trite and predictable to the last (I predicted the final scene involving flowers after witnessing its counterpart in the beginning fifteen minutes), but serviceable. The dialogue is merely atrocious, without a hint of following the old adage "Show, don't tell." The word "love" comes up so often it makes me wince. Rather than showing the two characters fall in and out of love, the director and writer were satisfied to have the character's talk about falling in and out of love with each other. The few times it even achieves a decent parlance into this manner of story-telling, it is still the camera that is doing the work (Edward Norton's watching Naomi Watts undress was particularly telling). The topical dips into anti-colonialism are pretty weak as well, seemingly thrown in for the purpose of... well actually I can't tell the purpose, other than to provide some background to the time period for western viewers I suppose.
Still, in many respects it is a good film - the soundtrack delivers, the backdrop is adequately epic, and the acting is still heartfelt, even if the stars, or anyone else really, was given rather little to work with. For me though, it's just a little too light on the things that could have catapaulted it into a great film, and when you have all these other pieces in play (like an obviously talented director and cinematography team) it's really inexcusable.
