"SILK" ROUGH FOR KEIRA

After "Atonement", where her lover is jailed for rape and lost forever, "Silk" gives Keira a husband, but a wayward one.

"Beware husbands going on long journeys"

That would seem to be the fortune cookie message from this film, "Silk".

For here, tasty Keira K waves goodbye to spouse Michael Pitt, sending him to distance lands, and essentially waves goodbye equally to all ideas of marital bliss..

Simply put, this is the story of a 19th century French silkworm merchant-turned-smuggler who hopes to profit from a disaster - his town's supply of African silkworms is wiped out by a disease. All he has to do is pop over to Japan for an alternative batch. Alas, during his stay in Japan, instead of focusing on his smuggling duties, he becomes obsessed with the concubine of a local baron.

Of course, he doesn't tell his wife that news in his postcards home but, Keira being a sensitive soul, she soon senses that all in not well in the Orient.

The film opened in America weeks ago and at least one review waxed lyrical about it as "a film of painterly beauty and ravishing romance, Silk is an historically rapturous epic romance of East meets West." Wow. I want in.

However, the New York Times was almost as disappointed by the goings on as Keira herself, saying: “Silk” is the latest casualty in a line of films with a David Lean glint in their eye that aspire to elevated popular art but that come across as kitsch. In the tradition of movies like “Snow Falling on Cedars,” the film, directed by François Girard, confuses pretty scenery doused in ponderous music with epic visual poetry. Impenetrable musings intended to evoke ineffable romantic longing leave you scratching your head as you wait, ever more impatiently, for something to happen.

Filed October 30, 2007

Filed October 30, 2007