Product: Snow Falling on Cedars (2000)
Rating: 4.0
So Close to Perfection . . .
This is a great movie experience, with stunningly beautiful cinematography, uniformly excellent acting, and several fascinating intertwinned stories to tell.Snow Falling on Cedars is centered around the trial of a Japanese American fisherman who is charged with the murder of a white fisherman in the years immediately after WWII. During the course of the trial our attention is drawn to the local newspaper editor, Ishameal Chambers(Ethan Hawke) who discovers information that has bearing on the outcome of the trial but is torn about whether he should reveal it or not because the fisherman's wife Hatsue(luminous Youki Kodoh) was his first and so far only love. We then see how their relationship developed over time through a long sequence of flashbacks interspersed with the trial scenes. And this in turn leads to what amounts to a history lesson, about one of the more shameful episodes in American history, the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. And as we see in both the pre- and post-war sections of the movie prejudice was alive and well and it has a great impact not only on the nature of the trial but also on the lives of the characters. I loved the ending as it seemed entirely appropriate and true to the nature of the characters.Snow. . 's greatest strength lies in evocative nature of the production, in this instance it is a masterpiece of direction, effortlessly grounding the viewer in time, space, and the minds of the characters. The sense of place is the most effectively realized of them all, the cinematography so thoroughly places us in Washington's San Juan Islands that I kept expecting to walk out the door into the snow and the forest and see Ishamael's car drive by or look out the window onto the foggy harbor. The frequent flashbacks were also well executed, with enough cues available to determine when a scene took place that I was only rarely unsure when it was. Finally, the stream of consciousness narrative style allowed us to dwell inside the characters and showed what they were thinking very well indeed.But what about those nagging flaws that kept Snow Falling on Cedars from achieving its full potential. My greatest qualms about the movie center on its sound design. The soundtrack frequently overpowers the dialogue and while the music is both enjoyable and appropriate. I felt cheated by having to choose between a reasonable music volume and being able to understand the character's lines. In addition the auditory layering that was used to emphasize certain lines later in the movie was overdone, it could have been quite effective used with fewer repetitions or with fewer lines, as it was however it quickly passed the threshold into an annoyance. I was also disappointed that the actors didn't have more screen time to establish their characters. Finally, I felt that Ethan Hawke's performance was a little underplayed, granted Ishamael Chambers is very emotionally suppressed, but the few scenes where his control breaks would have been significantly more effective had they been played with a little more fire.Despite these problems this is an extremely beautiful and worthwhile movie, provided that you are willing to tackle a complex nonlinear story telling structure and won't fall asleep to the gorgeous scenery.A couple of final notes: I haven't yet read the book but was still able to follow and enjoy the plot, also I saw this on VHS as a fullscreen, and if the other reviewers commentary is anything to go by it is vastly more impressive in widescreen format.