Anna and the King Reviews

The story (plot if you prefer) is well known and it may help to know it beforehand thereby leaving the viewer free to appreciate the rest of it.

Sets, costumes, soundtrack and cinematography are amongst the best you'll ever find in cinema. Simple as that. The supporting cast is very strong and they really needed to be. If I were to praise them all this review would be too long and perhaps feel somewhat gushing, but when it's good, say it's good.

Yun-Fat Chow has such a light touch that you need to see the film a number of times to appreciate his sleight of hand in the role and it becomes more appreciable considering his female counterpart. Chow needs more roles like this because he has serious talent that is wasted in action films.

Jodie Foster's portrayal of Leonowens is rock solid. Her British accent, though sometimes overly clipped, is almost word and syllable perfect - languages are one of her many gifts. She looks superb; redhead hence the pale skin leaving her face in almost a single plane out of which her piercing blue eyes become watchful and intelligent rather than soft and alluring, until darkness falls.

The film is a bit epic in terms of length but only according to the clock because it entertains on so many levels, time becomes irrelevant. Some films can seem long at 90 minutes, this is exactly the right length thanks to thoughtful writing and incredible direction.

I loved this movie and I could watch it every day, I think Yun-Fat Chow is lovely and so is Jodie. I do think though, there were things in the movie that was not quite right in those days, but even so, I loved it.

I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since Jodie Foster is one of my favorite actress, I thought I should still check it out. First of all, I haven't seen the original movie so I couldn't compare both. Anyway, my wife loved it but I didn't really like it very much. I mean, come on! I have seen 'The Last Emperor' which was really mesmerizing and, for me, this is just a pale and romanticized version. The sets, the costums, everything look prettty good and Jodie Foster and Chow Yun Fat both give some decent performances but what a boring story... The whole thing was just really predictable and uninspiring, in my opinion. Ok, nowadays, Jodie Foster doesn't do anything really amazing but she used to be an amazing actress back in the days and it is quite sad to see her end up here. I mean, I couldn't help thinking while watching this that she purely did this gig for the paycheck. I guess it is also a matter of taste, I mean, if you are into those romantic flicks, you would probably enjoy it more than me but I was rather bored during the whole thing. To conclude, I didn't really like it and I don't think it is really worth a look.