| . |
Millennium Actress
(Reviewed September 11, 2003)
-
This is an okay but shoulda-been-better animated feature about a retired Japanese actress whose recollections of her search for her true love are presented as vignettes featuring her in many period-piece film roles from different eras of Japanese history.
Sound confusing? It should, because that is part of the problem. The movie's ambitious structure can be hard to follow. The story also is undercut by the presence of a documentary filmmaker and his cameraman, who are not only interviewing the actress but who also inexplicably appear within her memories. The movie would have been better told if the actress' memories had been presented "straight," without those two extraneous characters mugging within the scenes and commenting on the action as we see it unfold.
Another problem (and one common to many Japanimation films) is that the characters too often TALK VERY LOUDLY AND EXCITEDLY, AS IF EVERY LINE OF DIALOG IS FOLLOWED BY SEVERAL EXCLAMATION POINTS!!! HAI!!!! Along the same lines, the filmmaker and his cameraman often have ridiculously overblown facial expressions, which don't mesh with the movie's overall tone of romantic melancholy.
Still, there is a lot of beautiful animation here, and some moments that are genuinely touching. I didn't buy the ending of the movie, where we are expected to believe that one of the actress' biggest fans would wait years to do something that he more realistically would not have waited even a minute to do. (No spoilers, but you will know what I mean when you see the movie.)
Worth seeing, but don't expect to be...spirited away.
Back Row Grade: C+
(Return to index by closing this window)
|
. |