Jamie passion and passionfruit!

From the reviews I didn’t expect so much of this film which has been called extremely dull.  Well, it may not have been the best film that the Merchant Ivory team have made (and it represents their last) but it has enough features in it to make a pretty good couple of hours.  Perhaps the film is not as good as the sum of its individual parts , but some of those individual parts are worth mentioning.

On the acting side we have two sterling performances from Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson.  Fiennes is fascinating as Jackson, the blind American ex-diplomat who wants to create his UN style bar in pre-WW2 Shanghai. Richardson is totally credible as the Russian countess emigrée, fallen upon hard times with her family in the Russian ghetto in Shanghai and her accent is great.  Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave, her mother and aunt play minor roles in the film and then there is Hiroyuki Sanada as Matsuda, the mysterious Japanese up to no good in the political shadows.  He is also suitably cast.  Then there is an intelligent script by Kazuo Ishiguro, some first rate photography as always by Christopher Doyle and great haunting music by Richard Robbins and a good choice of classical works.  All of these make for a sumptuous experience.   So, if it doesn’t quite grab us, perhaps it is because it seems a little over predictable, a little pedestrian in pace and maybe we don’t care quite enough about the characters.  Nevertheless, a lot of good work has gone into the movie and that keeps us watching-

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