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Review by Susan Granger
3½ stars out of 4
If you've been heard to mutter, "They don't make movies like
they used to..." then this sentimental, spectacularly beautiful
historical epic is for you. In this fourth film version of Margaret
Landon's fanciful story of Anna Leonowens, the strong-willed, recently
widowed schoolteacher who travels to Siam in 1862 with her young son
(Tom Felton) to educate the King's 58 children in Western customs,
Jodie Foster delivers a magnificent performance, combining
intelligence with compassion, dignity with vulnerability. Equally
impressive is Hong Kong action star Chow Yun-Fat as imposing King
Mongkut, the proud monarch who is amazed when a stubborn, impertinent,
English schoolmarm has the temerity to consider herself his
equal. Anna has Victorian preconceptions of primitive Siam while the
King, in turn, has his own disdainful preconceptions of Western
civilization. Meanwhile, the ominous threat of an invasion by
neighboring Burma, perhaps aided by the British, hangs over their
obviously growing affection for one another in this exotic,
extravagant, romantic pastiche. Director Andy Tennant (Ever After) and
cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (The Black Stallion), shooting in
Malaysia, emphasize the lavish, breathtaking opulence and stately
splendor, conceived by production designer Luciana Arrighi, perhaps to
the extreme. That may be the result of the plodding, bland script by
Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes which dulls the sharpness of the
underlying culture clash of racial, political and sexual tensions,
relying instead on a weak, simplistic subplot involving
treason. Nevertheless, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Anna and
the King is a sumptuous 9, proving that the traditional Hollywood
formulas can still concoct gratifying entertainment.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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