The film `Snow Falling on Cedars' takes us to the small island community of St. Piedro in Washington State, USA, where a murder trial is taking place. Carl Heine, a local fisherman, has been found dead, drowned and tangled in the net of his own boat. A member of the Japanese community on the island, Kabuo Miyamoto, who was known to hold a grudge against the family of the deceased, is accused of the murder, and several pieces of evidence point to his guilt. Covering the trial for the local newspaper is young Ishmael Chambers, who was once romantically involved with Kabuo's wife, Hatsue. As the trial progresses, Ishmael comes across some very important information concerning Carl's death, but because he still has strong feelings for Hatsue, Ishmael hesitates to come forward with his findings knowing that if Kabuo is convicted, there will be a possibility of rekindling the old flame between himself and Hatsue.
This adaption of the highly successful novel by David Guterson is a good movie, but not a great one. The strongest feature of this film is its cinematography - showing an amazing scenery which really captures the spirit of the small island community and the cold and harsh (but still beautiful) winter landscape. The actors are mainly solid, especially Max von Sydow and James Rebhorn as the two opposing attorneys; but both Ethan Hawke and Youki Kudoh (as the adult Ishmael and Hatsue) come across as rather flat. In fact, it's the young Ishmael and Hatsue which manages to touch the audience and give us a real sense of the love between them.
The movie tries to recapture some of the spirit from the book by using a lot of "artsy" effects (such as echoing voices mixing into each other). Generally, this works well, but it's being used a little too often. I think the movie puts more emphasis on the wrongful treatment of Japanese-Americans than the book did, while the love story has been pushed somewhat in the background. "Snow Falling..." tries to be a lot of things - a courtroom drama, a historical documentary, a love story - in the book, these aspects are all mixed extremely well together, but the film fails to do the same thing (maybe because there simply wouldn't be enough time - the movie would have to be nearly twice as long). Still, it's a beautiful piece of motion picture, and well worth seeing. I'll rate it a 4 out of 6 on my dice.
This adaption of the highly successful novel by David Guterson is a good movie, but not a great one. The strongest feature of this film is its cinematography - showing an amazing scenery which really captures the spirit of the small island community and the cold and harsh (but still beautiful) winter landscape. The actors are mainly solid, especially Max von Sydow and James Rebhorn as the two opposing attorneys; but both Ethan Hawke and Youki Kudoh (as the adult Ishmael and Hatsue) come across as rather flat. In fact, it's the young Ishmael and Hatsue which manages to touch the audience and give us a real sense of the love between them.
The movie tries to recapture some of the spirit from the book by using a lot of "artsy" effects (such as echoing voices mixing into each other). Generally, this works well, but it's being used a little too often. I think the movie puts more emphasis on the wrongful treatment of Japanese-Americans than the book did, while the love story has been pushed somewhat in the background. "Snow Falling..." tries to be a lot of things - a courtroom drama, a historical documentary, a love story - in the book, these aspects are all mixed extremely well together, but the film fails to do the same thing (maybe because there simply wouldn't be enough time - the movie would have to be nearly twice as long). Still, it's a beautiful piece of motion picture, and well worth seeing. I'll rate it a 4 out of 6 on my dice.