Product: Snow Falling on Cedars (2000)
Rating: 5.0
Great Novel, Great Movie
Naturally, a movie is rarely as good as the novel, and Snow Falling on Cedars doesn't break this guideline. However, considering the length and depth of the novel, the movie did a very fair rendition. Ethan Hawke surprised me, he was good, really good. And the imagery is absolutely beautiful, trees, snow, water, it's all good. And the flashbacks fit well. After reading the novel, I wondered how they would do that in the movie. But they managed and it worked. After reading the novel/watching the movie you realize that Ishmael still loves Hatsue, but he lets go and realizes it can never be. The movie is great in that it still retains the novel's ability to make you wonder: What if you find your soulmate, but that you aren't that person's soulmate? Ouch, poor Ishmael. The courtroom scenes are nicely depicted and the casting was well-done. All in all, 5 stars are deserved. I once did a report on the Japanese internment camps and even though the movie didn't dwell too much on that, we still get a strong sense of the injustice in the whole thing.