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Strong and Moving!

Good movie but grossly overrated

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

After watching "Maid of Manhattan" recently with Natasha Richardson(RIP) and Ralph Fiennes, I decided to give this film a go. I thought the film was so so good. However I don't understand why Fiennes had to put an American accent onto this because he can't do a Amercian accent!! I always thought as the blind English Diplomat not American at all! They either should've got someone better or written the character off if they weren't going to get the character development right among the actors! Anyways moving in, I loved how himself and Richardson's relationship developed throughout the whole film. The story- line was sad because it was set in near World War 2 and the fact people running for their lives to Japan (I think)in order to be safe from the soldiers. Omg one scene that even more frightened me as well was, when Fiennes character met with the soldiers face to face. I really thought they were gonna shot him right on the spot but thank god, he made it out alive and let him go without hesitant!I really liked this film, it really shows the history of China and it had a good cast to entertain us with their fine acting. I give this movie 8/10!

It's 1930s Shanghai. The Russian aristocrats have escaped from the revolution as penniless refugees into this open city. Countess Sofia Belinskaya (Natasha Richardson) works as a taxi dancer. Her family sees her as dirty but needs her for survival. Todd Jackson (Ralph Fiennes) is a blind American former diplomat. He lost his sight and family in a series of Chinese strife. He bets all of his money and wins big at the racetracks. He opens a welcoming bar named "The White Countess" and hires Sofia as the hostess. The varied clientele provides intrigue as the wars close in.Everything in this movie seems a little fake. It was probably a mistake to film this in Shanghai. The modern city is too different from its gritty past. It's not the best to recreate the exteriors although they do try. I'm not always a proponent of CGI but they're better off doing a little bit for the last act. The lack of it makes the final escape looks inferior. It's not well done. The interiors also feel flat. Other than an abundance of Chinese extras, there is a falseness to the feel. As for the actors, Ralph Fiennes is unconvincing as a blind man. I didn't even notice his blindness for the first couple of scenes. A pair of sunglasses would go a long way. This is a waste of good Redgrave women. Natasha Richardson is poignant and radiant. Her scenes with her family are heart-breaking. The pacing is slow as many Merchant-Ivory films but this one has no heat. The resistance to a full-blown romance and his blindness keep the pair at an emotional distance. It feels tired and worn. It wants to be romantic but the beating heart isn't there until the very end. It's a long two hour journey to get there.

If there was ever a movie that had all the ingredients for a masterpiece and failed completely, this is the one. Same people who made unforgettable "The Remains of the Day" and " Maurice" and "Howard's End", made this dross. Shanghai in 1936 is a perfect setting for a tale that contains intrigue, romance i tragedy in almost equal measure. Impoverished countess and disillusioned diplomat met and fell in love. Incredible cast, excellent writer and very bad direction of the seasoned veteran James Ivory. Everything looks contrived and fake, there is no magic between two main protagonists, and worst of all there is no sense of doom and tragedy that clouds everybody's lives. The city of lost souls seems empty and soulless.

"The White Countess" is a beautiful film, sumptuously shot with glorious colours evoking the grandeur of Shanghai in the 1930's. Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson play the male and female leads respectively, struggling with a sub-standard script. People have waxed lyrical about the themes of isolation that run through the rhetoric, but it's just so depressingly done, at the end of the film one doesn't actually care for the protagonists any more. Ralph Fiennes plays his blind diplomat as a buffoon, appearing drunk in almost every scene. Natasha Richardson struggles with a Russian accent and fails miserably. The only masterstroke is the casting of Vanessa and Lynne Redgrave as the mother and aunt respectively. It lends the film an authentic air of continuity. Ultimately, the film fails in its execution, it's overlong and could have done with tighter editing. It's a pity that this had to be Merchant-Ivory's swansong.