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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Silk
Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 6 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Romance
Written by:
Michael Golding
François Girard
Alessandro Baricco (novel)
Directed by: François Girard
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 14, 2007
DVD: February 26, 2008
Running Time: 110 minutes, Color
Origin: Canada / France / Italy / UK / Japan
Summary
RATING: R for sexuality and nudity
Starring Michael Pitt, Kôji Yakusho, Keira Knightley, Alfred Molina, Mark Rendall, and Sei Ashina
Based on the number one international bestselling novel by Alessandro Baricco, Silk is a sweeping romantic drama woven around a material of ethereal fragility: silkworm eggs. When the pébrine epidemic--the spotted silkworm disease that ravaged eggs from European hatcheries in the 1860s--spread overseas, eggs from as far away as Africa and India became infected; thus, the entire European silk trade seemed doomed. To continue his lucrative trade, Baldabiou--a roguish French trader--decides to send young military officer Herve Joncour on a perilous mission to Japan, separating Herve for months on end from Helene, his lovely and devoted schoolteacher wife. Prior to the opening of the Suez Canal, Japan produced the finest silk in the world for thousands of years and was considered a dominion forbidden to foreigners--quite literally the opposite end of the world. It is here that Herve encounters the powerful and feared local baron, Hara Jubei, with whom he will trade for the precious silkworm eggs. And it is here, in a world unlike anything that Herve has experienced before, that he becomes entranced by the baron's concubine, a deeply mysterious girl of intoxicating beauty. Without speaking one another's language, they share a doomed, obsessive love. A film of painterly beauty and ravishing romance, Silk is a historically rapturous epic romance of east meets west. (Picturehouse)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: The Red Violin
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New York Post Kyle Smith
As sensuous as its title, Silk is an exquisitely felt love story that unfolds as delicately as a blooming flower. And as slowly.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Sensual but profoundly silly, Silk is ultimately little more than softcore porn with arthouse trappings, a moony, dopily romantic "Red Shoe Diaries" variation for the NPR set.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole
Though elegantly staged, Silk is badly written and indifferently cast.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Cinematographer Alain Dostie's stunning, painterly cinematography is the best -- and perhaps only -- reason to endure this stunted epic.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Everything is brought together at the end in a flash of revelation that is spectacularly underwhelming.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
Failing to make a lick of rational sense, Silk grasps at poetic straws.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
Though the film aspires to the epic with pretensions of deeper philosophical meaning, it ultimately settles for being the "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" of historical romances.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Wan, generically pretty adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's 1996 novel.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Mr. Pitt is a reasonably photogenic specimen. But this actor, whose typical screen character is a broken, androgynous man-child, is disastrously miscast.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
By the end of Francois Gerard's plodding, uninvolving melodrama, his boredom will have nothing on yours.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
By any standards, Silk is a bad movie: pretentious, stillborn, devoid of emotion.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Silk is a snooze. Vacuous, arid and terminally dull, this adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's freak bestseller hasn't a trace of real life or energy to it, and is hamstrung by a lethargic lead performance by Michael Pitt.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Julia Wallace
Silk isn’t just bad. It’s utterly mad. It stutters and hiccups from scene to scene, from country to country, but never once does it make narrative or emotional sense.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
John N. gave it a10:
Although the man has a beautiful and loving wife awaiting his return, he becomes obsessed with the lovely young concubine of a powerful Japanese feudal baron. His choice, love or desire. However, in real life neither of these beauties would give the mayor's son the time of day because he's a lethargic, vacuous, sleepwalking, unkempt zombie. Fortunately, the gorgeous wife, concubine, prostitute and cinematography overcome this egregious miscasting and make the film a wise masterpiece.
