Living in a small French village in the 19th century is complicated business. Sun-dappled woods, gardens full of lilies, Knightley’s beaming face. Young, in love, and married to a beautiful schoolteacher (Knightley), Hervé (Pitt) is living the dream. And after a local businessman (the always wonderful Molina) starts manufacturing silk, the town’s economy booms. But trouble brews when diseased silkworms threaten to shut down operations, and Hervé is recruited for dangerous travel. He journeys first to Africa and then to a remote Japanese village in order to smuggle healthy silkworms back into France. And mind you, this is the 1800s. You couldn’t just book a ticket on Travelocity.com. Crossing immense distances involved months of travel, dog sleds, horse-drawn carriages, boats, and any number of strange adventures. Meanwhile, Knightley stays at home to pine for her husband and brush her curling tendrils. The plot thickens when, during his first visit to Japan, Hervé develops an obsession with the concubine (Ashina) of the local village baron (Yakusho). Though the two never speak and barely touch, his fixation grows, and drama ensues. While obsession, infidelity, and strangers in strange lands all make for a fascinating story (see the recent and wonderful The Painted Veil), Pitt’s character never breaks out beyond a mooning schoolboy, and the filmmaking, bereft of all irony, emerges as trite melodrama. Meanwhile, the screenplay (co-written by Girard and based on Alessandro Baricco’s novel) leaves characters undeveloped and superficial. Director Girard (The Red Violin) is full of ambition in this epic tale, but frankly, the whole endeavor plays like an adolescent love poem from an overly earnest 16-year-old. All pouty lips and brooding eyes, Pitt’s the one-note king of one-note actors. Gus Van Sant knew to cast him in a part where the point is to be beautiful, dazed, and confused in Last Days. But in Silk, Pitt must portray doting husband, town savior, and obsessively passionate smuggler, and this grand saga sags on his narrow shoulders. While the locations are stunning and the cinematography (by Alain Dostie) frequently pulls off compositions of breathtaking beauty, the flimsy emotional journey left me bored and frustrated – never a good combination.
This article appears in September 7 • 2007.