A worthy but flawed film

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2011)

This review contains what I consider to be minor spoilers - references to two scenes that do not go into details.
First I must say that although this film has its drawbacks, Qigang Chen's extraordinary score does not, and is worthy of Oscar nomination. I guess that will never happen, since so few Academy members will have seen this movie. The music is achingly beautiful, and daringly against type.
This is a powerful movie, expertly crafted by Zhang Yimou and his team. There are moments of extreme horror and tragedy, and moments of great humanity within the horror.
The major flaws for me were story beats, basically. Halfway through the movie, there is an extremely on-the-nose scene between Christian Bale's character and another Westerner (Paul Schneider, I guess). It was jarringly contrived and obvious, compared to the rest of the movie.
The other nonsensical scene involved a woman escaping the church's sanctuary simply to retrieve a pair of ear rings. With almost guaranteed death outside, this was also very contrived, and somewhat mystifying, considering that the Japanese are making sure no one goes in or out of the church.
But that aside, it is definitely a film worth seeing. Cinematography and editing were excellent.