The best and most succinct review of the film has already been delivered by
Variety's Derek Elley: "
Too much caution and too little lust. " That pretty much sums it up. The film tries to blend an espionage thriller with an erotic tale of passion, but it proves less than satisfying in either genre. It's a elegant looking film with care going into every detail in terms of make up, costume and set. But the film comes up short in terms of the emotional lives of these characters. The surfaces are mesmerizingly beautiful, but the film lacks life underneath.
Clocking in at two and a half hours, the film wastes large chunks of time on things like the lengthy opening mah jong game. Lee wants to set the scene, and invite us into the world of these privileged women but we get all that in about five minutes. Similarly, the cautious dance between Yee and Wong develops oh-so-slowly but without really building tension or passion. Lee, working from a script by James Schamus and Wang Hui Ling, proves to be as cautious as his characters and this leaves the film emotionally distant and cool. Even the explicit sexual encounters fail to ignite sparks. Although a lot of flesh is exposed, the scenes exhibit a strange restraint. This is even true in a scene where Yee's cool reserve gives way to violent sexual assault. The best way I can summarize my complaint is to say that there's no sweat--the characters are merely going through the motions of heated sexual encounters.
Lee's Lust, Caution and Wong's In the Mood for Love-see any similarities?
Focus Features has given the film an ad campaign that makes it look like a moody Wong Kar Wai film. Wong is the Hong Kong director who's made the rapturously romantic films Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love , 2046 and Fallen Angels among others. Lust, Caution even stars one of Wong's favorite actors, Hong Kong's Tony Leung Chiu Wai, a man with deliriously sad eyes. But if the ads lure any Wong fans to the film, they will be sadly disappointed. Wong has a sure handle on what he wants his films to be and to do, there's no artistic caution on his part. But Wong's films are not interested in sex as much as they are interested in love. He's interested in that giddy emotion that can consume people. Lee on the other hand, doesn't know if he's interested in the sex, the romance or the passion. There's little intimacy in the sexual encounters yet Lee does find the most emotional moment in a scene where Wang sings for Yee. Only here do you get a sense of the real emotions of the characters. And I'm not even sure if Lee thinks the relationship between Yee and Wang is the one that we should be most interested in. In some respects, there's considerable emotional weight in a romance that never develops between Huang and Wang.
Lust, Caution (Focus Features)
Lee began his career as a wry and keen observer of social manners and morals in films such as The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman. Then he proved that he could be an equally keen social observer of 18th century English country life in Sense and Sensibility, and 1970s suburban New England life in The Ice Storm . These films won me over and made me a fan. They felt very personal and intimate, and were directed with a sense of care. But Lee's films after The Ice Storm have failed to impress me even though they have broken box office records and gathered arm loads of awards. His films have moved from being personal to being works that could have been made by others. Sense and Sensibility was like a Merchant-Ivory production; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon would have been better in the hands of Tsui Hark; The Hulk was a comic book movie that should have been handled by someone like Sam Raimi; and Lust, Caution might have generated more heat with Wong Kar Wai at the helm. As with Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee seems to be losing his identity the more he makes films within the studio system and with the intent of either wider distribution or to seek Oscar gold.
Of the cast, only Tony Leung really succeeds at creating a character that holds our interest and contains hidden complexities. He's good at playing a sympathetic cad (check out In the Mood for Love ) because no matter how badly he might behave, his eyes always imply that there's something more going on beneath the surface that we'll never get to know. Tang Wei's Wang is a character so wrapped in deceit that we never really know what her true emotions are.
Lust, Caution (rated NC-17 for explicit sexuality) teases but never satisfies. Although it takes Lee back to Asia, it doesn't return him to the style of filmmaking where he produced his best work.
Companion viewing: Brokeback Mountain , Army of Shadows, In the Mood for Love
