Review of Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) by Keenan S — 27 Jan 2014

Memoirs Of A Geisha is a lavish and beautiful spectacle as a drama that has some wonky story elements and acting. This film wonderfully directed, the music is spectacular (As usual for John Williams), the story is solid, and the acting is solid, and there is a plentiful abundance of drama laced throughout this wonderful historical epic.

Still, it is not without its issues as sometimes the film can be rather hammy during some scenes, sometimes it feels like the Asian actors struggle with their English lines, and the story itself could use more polish.

I honestly feel that this film would have been improved had it been in Japanese, rather than in English, because sometimes the English seems to be a struggle for the actors to make believable (Of course, doing the film in Japanese would have been a tricky task since most of the Asian actors are in fact, Chinese rather than Japanese).

Still, despite these hiccups, Memoirs Of A Geisha is a wonderful and epic romantic drama, that is shy of true greatness. If you enjoy romantic dramas with some syrup poured over them, this one will do fine.