THE WHITE COUNTESS
Directed by: James Ivory.
Produced by: Ismail Merchant.
Written by: Kazuo Ishiguro.
Director of Photography: Christopher Doyle.
Edited by: John David Allen.
Music by: Richard Robbins.
Released by: Sony Pictures Classics.
Country of Origin: UK/USA/Germany/China. 135 min. Rated: PG-13.
With: Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave, Lynn Redgrave, John Wood, Madeleine Potter, Allan Corduner & Hiroyuki Sanada.

Marking the final collaboration of director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant, who passed away during post-production, Merchant Ivory Productions delivers a sumptuous period piece with characteristic aplomb. The historical drama unfolds in Shanghai on the eve of the Japanese invasion in 1937. Jackson (Ralph Fiennes), a once celebrated American diplomat who lost both his family and eyesight in a terrorist attack, wanders about aimlessly from board meetings to decadent European bars. In one of many lowlife dives, he meets Sofia (Natasha Richardson), a widowed Russian countess reduced to the life of a taxi dancer and sometime prostitute ever since the Bolshevik Revolution displaced Russia's nobility. Intrigued by Sofia's beauty as well as her plight, Jackson decides she will be the perfect centerpiece/hostess to his dream nightclub, The White Countess, which he subsequently establishes in her honor. However, the Japanese invasion, the increasing political tension, and Sofia's family, plotting to flee to Hong Kong, threaten to separate the budding relationship between Jackson and Sofia.

As the film's star, Richardson shines with what Jackson calls, "the perfect blend of eroticism and tragedy." Fiennes matches her with equal gravity as the fragmented Jackson, but it is the supporting cast of Britain's finest actors - Vanessa Redgrave as the kindly Aunt Sara, Lynn Redgrave as Sofia's conniving mother-in-law and John Wood as her Uncle Peter - that truly grounds this film. The Last Samurai's Hiroyuki Sanada as Matsuda, an enigmatic Japanese militant who befriends Jackson, deserves more Stateside roles with his poised performance.

As in the Merchant Ivory adaptation of screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day, the faint romance between Jackson and Sofia remains subdued for the most of the film. Yet while this repression was poignant in the former work, in The White Countess it merely weighs the film down with unnecessary ambivalence. Ultimately, from its exquisite mise-en-scène of 1930s Shanghai to the tailored performances, The White Countess has the stateliness of a centerpiece - a quality that both intrigues and frustrates with its tendency to keep the viewers at bay from its emotional core. Marie Iida
December 21, 2006