Silk (2007)

Longing for what we can never have can quietly pull us away from what's right in front of us. François Girard's "Silk," adapted from Alessandro Baricco's acclaimed novel, is set in the 1860s, when Japan was still closed to the West, and tells an unusual love story involving Hervé Joncour (Michael Pitt), his wife, Hélène (Keira Knightley), and a mysterious young woman (Sei Ashina) with whom he has never exchanged a single word. When an epidemic wipes out France's silkworms, Hervé is sent by the local entrepreneur Baldabiou (Alfred Molina) to Japan to smuggle out healthy eggs so the town's silk mills can survive. The trip makes him a small fortune, allowing him to buy a grand home with land where Hélène can create the garden she has always dreamed of. On later journeys back to Japan, Hervé again encounters the powerful baron Hara Jubei (Koji Yakusho) and the young woman who is his concubine, who gazes at him with silent longing. One day, as he bathes, she slips him a note in Japanese, which he later learns begs him to return or she will die. For all its good intentions, the film doesn't carry enough dramatic weight to hold much interest. The fact that Pitt is American, Knightley is British and neither tries a French accent is forgivable. But there's little chemistry among the leads, who are undeniably beautiful but come across as cool and distant. Pitt's mournful delivery and clumsy dialogue don't help. Still, the scenery is gorgeous, and a final letter, written in Japanese and speaking at length about love, faith and the need to go on, brings the story to a poignant close.