Review
Review Date: 16-February-03
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Jubilation!
The Quiet American (2002)
I read Graham Greene's "The Quiet American" when I was in Hanoi a few years back, enjoying the lush, unforgettable (and sweltering) sights and sensations that Vietnam has to offer. Maybe this is why I failed to realize at the time what a fabulous movie the book could make, with its aching texture of longing and regret embossed on a background of political and romantic intrigue. Caught up in my own little adventure, I was temporarily blinded to the lure that movies usually have for me, the promise of faraway lands and thoughts and feelings beyond my normal experience. But Phillip Noyce's long postponed film version of "The Quiet American" has opened my eyes. It realizes all of the potential for cinematic beauty and emotion that lay waiting to be plucked from the pages of Greene's novel.
"The Quiet American" is a personal memoir, a love story (or rather, several love stories), a political thriller, and an indictment of America's involvement in Vietnam, and yet it never seems cluttered or disjointed; all of these themes are expertly woven together to create a seamless whole of many lovely colors. This is principally accomplished by the fact that the entire tale is told through the eyes of Thomas Fowler, an aging British reporter played by Michael Caine. Fowler lives in Saigon in the 1950s, savoring the autumn of his years by barely covering the war between the French (the old guard) and the Communists (the new kids on the block), and focusing his energies instead on Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen), his young Vietnamese mistress, as well as the pleasures of the opium pipe. Although Fowler loves Phuong, he cannot marry her because his wife back in London refuses to grant him a divorce. But even without a wedding, and despite the fact that Phuong's scheming older sister disapproves of anyone who will not permanently settle her in style, Phuong and Fowler appear to be happy together, creating a peaceful home in a chaotic city. It is a life of escape and withdrawal, which is depicted in an appealing, softly shadowed light.
But Fowler cannot hide from the world forever, and it eventually comes calling in the form of a seemingly innocuous but highly zealous do-gooder from America named Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser, in the role he was born to play). Pyle appears out of nowhere one day, brimming with questions about Vietnam and claiming to be on a mission of medical charity, out to rid Indochina of the scourge of eye disease. Fowler finds the overly polite and fresh-faced young man amusing until Pyle takes one look at Phuong and instantly falls in love with her. From that moment on, the story revolves around not one but two love triangles: the first involving the rival claims of Pyle and Fowler concerning what's best for Phuong, and the second involving the differing attitudes of Pyle and Fowler concerning what's best for Vietnam. (Both of these objects of affection are depicted as very beautiful and worth fighting for.) As soon as Pyle appears, Fowler becomes aware of the mysterious movements of a phantom army, a third player in the country's internal struggle whose origins and motivations are not entirely clear. As he inches closer to the truth and discovers that the American is not quite what he seems, he realizes that in both love and politics, loyalties must be declared sooner or later, and devotion can manifest itself in many forms, not all of them admirable.
From the casting to the settings to the direction, every note in "The Quiet American" is pitch-perfect, creating a fascinating, troubling, and moving story whose principal trait is atmosphere: you can actually feel Fowler's need for Phuong, his longing for detachment, and the horror that finally makes him take a stand. Caine may not have been the obvious choice to play Fowler, but he is excellent, magnetic in his soft-spokenness, and Fraser absolutely nails Pyle in the finest performance of his career. This is a movie that genuinely has it all: history, romance, action, intrigue, an exotic location, and that rarest of qualities: the rich, satisfying complexity of a well written book.
Copyright © 2003 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.
