The Quiet American

It looks like a colonial postcard; the lanterns, straw hats and moonlight on the river. Then the narrator refocuses your attention to the flashes in the background. Michael Caine's world-weary tone pushes us away from the accepted Miramax orientalism towards the flares and missiles that paint the Saigon skyline with yellow and white bursts. That's when you sit up and realise. This is not going to be another dull, travelogue luvvie-fest that the Weinsteins constantly churn out for the award ceremonies. And that would explain why both Michael Caine's excellent performance and Phillip Noyce's second step in his credibility revival (after Rabbit Proof Fence, 2002) has been given short shrift in the US. Its release, to use an appropriate term, has been limited. Just enough screenings for the critics to rave about Caine's brilliant work, so that some 'For Your Consideration' ads can be placed in Variety and another Oscar nom can be added to the Miramax tally board. Just don't let the public see it. Not in this climate. After all, it suggests that the CIA supplied funding and explosives to terrorists. Who could handle such a truth in these turmoil-ridden times? Well, I'm sure people who like character driven, narrative-heavy cinema might just about stomach the shock.

Based on the classic Graham Greene novel that forewarned against US involvement in Vietnam, The Quiet American tells of apathetic ex-pat reporter, Fowler's (Caine) descent. Fowler despite being married, is living with a young Vietnamese lady, Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen). Keeping his distance from the conflicts between the French and the communists outside the city, he also generally avoids the other westerners who populate the Continental Hotel. That is until he politely invites a conversation with Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), a young man of principle whose stay in Vietnam is somewhat shadowy. Pyle takes an instant liking to the English newspaper man but their potential for friendship is threatened by his attraction for Phuong.

It is refreshing to see a film about espionage that actually concentrates on the people who populate such a world as opposed to the ciphers who bombastically fight their way through it. Just as Fraser's Pyle is generally driven and decent, he never really gains our sympathies. Whether it be taking in stray dogs or offering Caine's May to December lover a better life, he is just too idealistically correct and confident to ever be more for the audience than an ever smiling barrier to Fowler. Which is not to say Brendan Fraser is not convincing; take him away from CGI mummies and loincloths and he is one of screen acting's most subtle stars. While we are sure of Pyle's affection for the man whose romance he has ruined, we are never certain if Fowler reciprocates these platonic feelings. It is this ambiguity that Caine lends Fowler which makes him the centre of our attentions. A fallen man, a reporter who knows and cares less about the situation he is supposed to be an expert on. We soon realise that his career is seen as an interruption to his soon to be shattered domesticity with Phuong. When this becomes all he has left you can see the long forgotten fury slowly welling up. We follow Caine on an exciting interior journey as his character battles with trying to restore the equilibrium he created for himself. How far can he go to stop the emotional and political forces that surround him from ruining him?

Christopher Hampton takes the nuances of Greene's text and distillates them into some powerful scenes. The night in the bunker when Pyle shocks Fowler with the revelation that he wants Phuong is taut with the impending menace of both the battle outside and the deadly emotions being bottled up within. Christopher Doyle's camerawork is surprisingly subdued. As Fowler constantly revisit his own ground (home, the office, the Continental) the camera remains fixed; it is when he is forced into areas he previously took care to avoid (the US embassy, the countryside, the riverside) that Doyle employs a shifting handheld camera. The shots lose their constancy whenever Fowler steps out of his self imposed boundaries. Noyce has made a restrained film that at first appears flat when compared to the beauty of Rabbit Proof Fence. He treats the content with the classical cinematic style its period and literary background deserves and manages to allow the male performers to shine.

If you care about the air of self censorship that is rife in Hollywood at the moment then go see The Quiet American. Here is a fantastic piece of cinema that inadvertently stands in opposition to the patriotic jingoism that has taken over the US. If UK showings were to sell out then maybe this film would get the US release it deserves. If more films as thoughtful and concerned are bankrolled and promoted, then we might all be spared from Chocolat 2.

Reviewed by Bob Carroll