Review of The Quiet American (2002) by Classified C — 11 Apr 2004

[u][i]The Quiet American[/i] (Phillip Noyce, 2002)[/u].

[u][i]Rabbit-Proof Fence[/i] (Phillip Noyce, 2002)[/u].

In Phillip Noyce's superb, graceful adaptation of Graham Greene's 1955 novel [b]The Quiet American[/b], it's 1952, and, through the lens of excellent cinematographer Christopher Doyle, the country of Vietnam looks exotically beautiful and serene. But of course, this is just the calm before the storm, as in only a decade or so, America will engage in its most ruinous war ever with that very country. And the moral ambiguities of the three tragic, vastly different characters in this movie - a tired British journalist, a deceptively quiet American, and a beautiful Vietnamese woman loved by both men - seem to presage the kinds of attitudes that would soon lead to catastrophe in the lush jungles of Vietnam.

Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) is a tired reporter for the London [i]Times[/i], in Vietnam mainly to escape a stagnant marriage back home to a woman who won't divorce him and to luxuriate in the company of his lovely Vietnamese mistress, Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen). He enjoys his leisurely stay there until he befriends Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), a can-do American fellow new to Vietnam who's apparently there to run a medical aid program. But their professional relationship begins to deteriorate when Alden falls in love with Phuong and makes a play for her - and as ulterior motives are revealed in all three.

Yes, Noyce's fairly straightforward, no-frills narrative approach contains few big moments of Drama, and the love triangle does seem a little underdeveloped. But this is a strong, serious literary thriller with big themes in its sights - murder, love, geopolitical history, conflicting worldviews. In fact, the movie is about something bigger than itself, and all involved rise to the challenges of such a large-scale story. Caine is wary but fierce as Fowler - he makes his towering performance look like child's play. And Fraser, a wonderful but underappreciated talent, uses his earnest face and Boy Scout-like demeanor to portray the gung-ho, not-as-innocent-as-he-seems American of the title. Noyce, meanwhile, handles the thriller, murder-mystery, and history-lesson elements deftly - with the hidden agendas slowly piling up to eventually achieve a suitably tragic weight - and never preaches or editorializes too much. (He distributes the blame for the catastrophic events that happen fairly equally among the three different cultures explored here.) Noyce also lends the story a melancholy aura, suitable for the tragic heft of the story - as well as for the sorrow and cataclysm of the Vietnam War, which this beautifully crafted political thriller quietly portends.

Noyce also directed [b]Rabbit-Proof Fence[/b], based on a terrible but true story. In Australia during the 1930s, children of mixed race (they were called "half-caste") were forcibly taken from their homes and shipped off to institutions which trained them as domestic workers. These prison-like "schools" were also part of a perverse program run by one Mr. A.O. Neville (Kenneth Branagh) that attempted to "breed out" the colour in the half-caste children. But then three young children decided to escape their state-sponsored confines and trek the 1500 miles back home, desperately scavenging to meet their basic needs and, at the same time, attempting to stay one step ahead of the skilled tracker who was sent by Neville to round them up. To keep their bearings, the children followed the rabbit-proof fence of the title, which was at the time the longest unbroken stretch of fence in the world, designed to keep the numerous rabbits from devouring the continent whole.

Noyce, himself an Australian, honours this amazing true story best by standing back; his spare, natural, and unobtrusive narrative style lets the power of the story shine through and lets the natural magnetism of the young actors (particularly Everlyn Sampi as the eldest of the children, Molly) own the screen. Meanwhile, the astoundingly gorgeous visuals of the Australian Outback come care of [i]Quiet American[/i] cinematographer Christopher Doyle. Noyce doesn't add any flashy embellishments or melodrama to his movie, nor does he try to make an indictment of these awful policies which separated children from families - despite Branagh's portrayal of Neville as a very naive man out of touch with reality. This is merely a story about a couple of kids yearning to go back home - and Noyce proves that that can be dramatically powerful enough. [i]Quiet American[/i]: [b]A-[/b]; [i]Rabbit-Proof Fence[/i]: [b]B+[/b].