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Memoirs of a Geisha was a bit of a disappointment for me. The music was undeniably beautiful. Many scenes were so breath-taking that I froze my DVD several times to take in their color and beauty. As for the costumes, they had an exotic charm. The plot was fairly interesting, too. However, the acting was shallow and one-dimensional, the dialogs were unnatural, and the actors were unconvincing. The fault lay in the fact that everyone involved on the other side of the camera (director, producer, costume designer, screenwriter, etc.) were westerners. As for the actors, many weren't Japanese, but obviously Chinese. I guess this was why everyone was speaking in accented English and not Japanese. This movie is a stylized, or perhaps even romanticized, view of Japan through the eyes of a westerner. It's another one of those Hollywood movies about other societies in which these societies are presented in a stereotypical way. Were I Japanese, I'd feel ambivalence about this movie.

There is so much that I like about this movie, and I've watched it several times. First of all, the Ethan brothers are masters at the art of film-making, and they show their artistry to the fullest in The Man Who Wasn't There. The movie rotates around Thornton, whose deadpan performance is, paradoxically, so moving. It gives me the impression of someone who wants to feel, but is unable to. But the other performers are equally great. Having grown up in the 1960s, I could really relate to the movie, since it reminded me of all the B-movies we would watch on TV. Having said that, I also think it is the most authentic modern film-noir ever made. If there ever was a movie you should have in your private DVD collection, The Man Who Wasn't There is definitely one.

The only positive thing I can say about Midnight Express is that the acting of Brad Davis is superb. It's really too bad that such a promising actor had to die so soon. But the rest of the movie is a racist rant. When I first saw the movie I wondered how any respectable Turkish actor could play such roles as the insensitive judge or the incompetent lawyer. It was later that I found out that all the Turkish parts were played by other actors of different nationalities who weren't even speaking Turkish! Talk about realism! Midnight Express had the potential to be a great movie. Unfortunately, it is an amateurish work with glimmers of professionalism.