The White Countess

From the desk of The Movie Snob:

The White Countess (C-). I am not too familiar with the large oeuvre of films made by the team of Merchant and Ivory, but I did like Howard's End very much. (They are perhaps best known for The Remains of the Day and A Room with a View, neither of which I saw.) This film is based on a screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, who also wrote The Remains of the Day as well as last year's excellent novel Never Let Me Go. So my hopes were fairly high for this movie. Set in the late 1930's (just like Mrs. Henderson Presents!), this is the story of two lost souls who find each other in the chaos of Shanghai on the eve of WWII. Ralph Fiennes is Todd Jackson, a disillusioned American whose dream is to own the perfect jazz club, which he will make his retreat from the world. Natasha Richardson is a Russian countess, living in exile with a few family members after the Bolshevik Revolution, barely making enough money as a taxi dancer to keep a roof over their heads. (I had never seen that expression, "taxi dancer," until I read some reviews for this movie. And it is exactly what she is.) The urbane, mysterious, and vaguely menacing Japanese Mr. Matsuda hovers over the proceedings, an omen of the evil times to come. There is a strong Casablanca feel to the movie, but the plot lacks the urgency and forward momentum of that classic. Despite the obvious charms of Countess Sofia, Jackson seems content to hide in his bar until it comes crashing down around his ears, and we just aren't given enough of a reason to root for him to pull out of his funk.