MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Rob Marshall
December 9th, 2005 by Andre Soares
Memoirs of a Geisha is a movie after its time. It would have worked beautifully as a silent film (as long its makers chopped off forty or fifty minutes of its 145-minute running time), with intertitles decorated with red and blue lanterns, floating kimonos, Japanese scripts, and abstract drawings of Buddhist temples. As it stands, this sumptuous, highly melodramatic film looks just about right; but once someone decides to say something - anything - the classy-looking Geisha is dragged down into the gutter like the lowliest of streetwalkers by its atrocious dialogue, delivered in a sort of pidgin-English dialect that even Warner Oland’s 1930s Charlie Chan would have deemed unacceptable.
No matter how capable or how beautiful Ziyi Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, and Gong Li are - and they are three of the best and most stunning-looking actresses around - there isn’t much they can do to save this film. Though, as good troupers, they sure do try. If only Memoirs of a Geisha had been a silent film …
Leave a Reply
Note: All comments are moderated. Different views and opinions are welcome, but abusive/bigoted/flaming comments will NOT be approved. Also, please be aware that the Alternative Film Guide has NO contact information for the talent mentioned in this blog or any information pertaining to or access to distributors'/producers' film prints.
