Silk

Features great cinematography, good supporting performances and a decent script, but is marred by a horrible lead performance and a poorly-crafted climax. To be fair, the overwhelmingly negative critical response to Silk is a little harsh. It's being referred to as an extremely slow-moving and boring drama, and while there are some elements of that, we've seen far more monotonous films, especially in the realm of period pieces. Silk is mostly engaging, at least to those who can appreciate dialogue-based films and aren't in need of a dosage of action sequences.

The main problem with Silk, though, is that Michael Pitt is incredibly bad as Herve, and I hate saying it because I do like Pitt (see The Dreamers for evidence that this guy can actually give a decent performance). I recently reviewed Charlie Bartlett and said that Anton Yelchin's lead performance was sometimes disserviced by his "blank stares"... little did I know how much worse someone could do with the same kind of expression. There is a scene towards the end in which Herve is listening to someone read a letter for him, and the scene absolutely requires him to display emotion, yet we get absolutely nothing. Credit goes to Keira Knightley and Alfred Molina for balancing out Pitt's horrible leading turn here. They give us as much as they can with what the script allows them.

Though the ending packs an emotional punch and cleverly reiterates words that were spoken in the opening scenes, the emotional void in Herve's countenance makes it impossible to be fully invested in this. In addition, one of the aspects that leads to the climax is truly laughable. I don't want to spoil anything, but during the final scenes, a character is supposed to find another character in a city and the searcher has absolutely no address or other helpful information, and the explanation that is given when the character finds the person being searched for is simply ridiculous, almost to the point that it takes away from the seriousness and emotional depth of what is happening in the concluding scenes. The only thing I give Michael Pitt credit for is the subdued nature of his narrative voiceover, which perfectly fits the tone of the movie; not much happens in Silk, but it's still mostly interesting to watch it unfold. Still, there are too many crucial factors that keep it from being as effective a drama as it should be.

5/10