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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 19.44%
Worth A Look: 25%
Average: 41.67%
Pretty Bad: 12.5%
Total Crap: 1.39%
7 reviews, 30 user ratings
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| Snow Falling On Cedars |
by Filmnet
"Pride and prejudice."
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The first thing that hits you is the beauty – the fog, the icy blue waters, the cedars on the hills, the calm. I was so wrapped up in the cinematography – thanks to frequent Oliver Stone collaborator Robert Richardson (Wag the Dog, The Horse Whisperer) as well as editing by Hank Corwin (Nixon, Natural Born Killers) – that I walked out realising that I hadn’t paid as much attention to the narrative as perhaps I should.Based on David Guterson’s bestselling novel, Snow Falling On Cedars is a complicated story told in a simple manner. I don’t mean this in a derogatory way for it is handled well. I say simple because it is a story that encourages you to think about it long after you’ve left the cinema. Scripted by Ronald Bass (Entrapment, Stepmom), director Scott Hicks (Shine) does a fine job of weaving several themes into a satisfying experience: love, war, prejudice, misunderstanding, bitterness and forgiveness.
Set around the time of the second World War, Kazuo (former Wall Street trader and Versace model Rick Yune – yum yum – making his film debut) is a Japanese-American fisherman accused of murdering a childhood friend over a land claim. Hatsue (Youki Kudoh – Heaven’s Burning, Picture Bride) is Kazuo’s wife and former love of Ishmael (Ethan Hawke – Gattaca, Great Expectations), the local journalist and son of campaigning newspaper man Arthur (Sam Shepard – Frances, Thunderheart).
Told through the eyes of Ishmael, Kazuo’s trial fuses past and present prejudices through a series of flashbacks: Ishmael and Kazuo’s childhood romance, the internment of Americans of Japanese descent after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the behaviour of a community in wartime and their consequent attempts to pick up the pieces. Against the backdrop of the trial, Ishmael comes to terms with the loss to another of the woman he still loves and the importance of fighting for truth over injustice.
Filmed in British Columbia and Washington State, the movement between present day and flashback is fluidly directed, with the rustic setting of the fictional American island’s wintery landscape as much of a character as the people themselves. Poetic music by the legendary James Newton Howard (The Sixth Sense, Primal Fear) adds sumptuous texture.
Hicks extracts wonderful performances from his cast including the delightful Reeve Carney as the young Ishmael and always reliable Max von Sydow (What Dreams May Come, Awakenings) as Kazuo’s defence lawyer. Regular supporting actors (is there any film they’ve not been in?) include Richard Jenkins as the sheriff, James Rebhorn as the suitably slimey prosecutor, and James Cromwell (Babe, LA Confidential) as the judge.A cliché, I know, but this film really is a visual feast. Go for the mist, the snow, the romance or simply the beauty of Rick Yune. Just go! (Natasha Wood--filmnet.org.au)
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link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=560&reviewer=169
originally posted: 12/29/99 05:13:33
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USA
22-Dec-1999 (PG-13)
UK
N/A
Australia
26-Dec-1999
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