Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 6, 1993 TAG: 9302060193
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
`LOVER' NEEDS MORE THAN SEX
"The Lover" is a sexually volatile but emotionally distant love story based on the novella by Marguerite Duras.It plays like a steamy, erotic reverie due to the lush cinematography by Robert Fraisse, the languid pacing of director Jean-Jacques Annaud and the torrid love scenes between the two stars.
The story begins as an elderly Duras (voice supplied by Jeanne Moreau) scratches out her novella. Then the movie shifts to Vietnam in 1929.
Jane March plays a 17-year-old French student - simply called The Girl in the movie. She's on a ferry returning to school in Saigon when she's noticed by an elegantly dressed Chinese man 15 years her senior. Played by Tony Leung, he carries no name either. Leung spies March through the windows of his chauffeur-driven limousine and is immediately smitten by the coltish and pouty girl wearing the clinging dress and man's straw hat.
He offers her a ride back to school, and a sexual tension develops on the drive.
Thus begins a cat-and-mouse game. The Girl is a virgin but curious. She sees in the man both an opportunity to fulfill her sexual longings and the chance to help out her financially stricken, dysfunctional family. Her mother is a rather coarse school teacher who lavishes her affection mainly on her loutish oldest son. A younger son is bullied by his opium-addicted brother and is given to fits of crying. Part of the problem of the movie is the unconvincing nature of this overwrought and unappealing family.
Before long, The Girl is the mistress of the Chinese man, who falls deeply in love with her. But she professes no love in return. Indeed, she's unable to recognize it because of her upbringing, though the movie acknowledges that it was there.
Annaud is noted for his visual style. He directed "The Name of the Rose," "The Bear" and "Quest for Fire." The scenes of Vietnam are sumptuous, and Saigon appears enticingly exotic. But such epic touches make this intimate story seem larger than it really is, though there is a significant cultural issue involved.
Underlying the relationship is the forbidden nature of the romance. The man is headed for an arranged marriage, and his culture does not allow marriage to a white woman. The Girl's culture doesn't permit a relationship with a Chinese man.
But the characters are too slight to carry the theme. They generate little sympathy. The Man is idle and lazy, and Leung's touch of irony is his one redeeming quality. March is appealing but mannered, and the story is at times confusing about the dynamics of her family and ultimately her character.
The Lover: **1/2
An MGM release at the Grandin Theatre (345-6177). Rated R for extremely strong sexual content and nudity; 99 minutes.