Confusion blankets ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’
By Samuel McKewon
Senior editor
“Snow Falling on Cedars” is a challenging
movie in the sense that its structure feels more like
a reaction than a movie; director Scott Hicks
chooses to reveal truths only as they occur in the
characters’ minds rather than serving a straightfor
ward platter of events.
The movie will frustrate a lot of viewers and
confuse even more. A few moments of the movie
shift perspective among three different time peri
ods within a matter of seconds, combining these
images with a shot of dew dropping off a leaf. One
viewer near me tossed up his hands in defeat;
another muttered, “What the hell is going on?”
* Such is the life of this unconventional film,
which keeps us at arm’s length with the characters’
emotions. Structure is so fundamental to “Snow
Falling on Cedars” that it overshadows the story.
Adapted from David Guterson’s prize-winning
novel, it’s a complicated tale of racism in the 1950s
with an unlikely background: the internment of
Japanese-Americans during World War II after the
invasion of Pearl Harbor. The internment itself
took place in the 1940s but made a lasting impres
sion on the small Washington island where the
book and film take place.
It’s here where a trial ensues and the defendant,
Yazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune), faces death after
being accused of murdering his fisherman friend
over a botched land deal that stretches back to the
internment. Local reporter Ismael Chambers (a
dour Ethan Hawke) has the evidence that might set
Miyamoto free, but is reluctant to use it for reasons
buried deep in die past.
^Snow Falling
Cedars
STARS: Ethan Hawke, Yuki
Kudoh, Max Von Sydow
DIRECTOR: Scott Hicks
RATING: PG-13 (minor war
carnage, brief nudity)
GRADE: C+
FIVE WORDS: Beautiful
film, but emotionally
distant
Most of it has to do with Chambers’ failed
romance with Miyamoto’s wife, Hatsue (Yuki
Kudoh), who loved him as a child and even as a
teen, but was tom from him by tradition and the
internment. Chambers never recovered.
Much time is spent by Hicks examining this
affair, with children cast as the younger Ismael and
Hatsue as they find a secret spot inside the middle
of a giant cedar tree, while it seems to be either
raining or snowing directly outside at all times. The
lush cinematography of nature by Robert
Richardson (“JFK”) is so stunning, it can distract
from the film itself, which is probably just as well.
“Snow Falling on Cedars” isn’t a film that
needs much story. Hicks seems to be more inter
ested in human memory and obsession that cloud
the minds of nearly all involved except Chambers’
father, played by Sam Shepard, in flashbacks as an
ethically sound newspaperman.
Courtesy Photo
Ethan Hawke plays a reporter covering a murder trial involving his childhood sweetheart in
“Snow Falling on Cedars.”
Some of these scenes play out quite well, such
as that of the fisherman’s widow, who remembers
just how her husband’s final day began. Others are
nonsensical - Hatsue’s budding romance with
Yazuo, for example, never develops to the point of
believability.
The acting doesn’t help convey much emotion.
Hawke cannot carry a film, though he’s been given
many chances to do so, and here he has drawn his
character so far inward he seems to have no moti
vation. Kudoh, a newcomer, misses the right tone. -
Only Max Von Sydow, as a defense lawyer,
commands the screen. Notice, too, that when he’s
on the screen, Hicks doesn’t make any flashy edits.
Scenes depicting the Japanese internment are
powerful and meaningful at the same time; it’s aK
different way of looking at World War n. But all the"
power in the film doesn’t add up to much.
David Crosby named father
of Etheridge’s two children
NEW YORK (AP) - Rock star
Melissa Etheridge says David Crosby is
the father of the children she shares with
partner Julie Cypher.
The paternity of Bailey, 3, and
Beckett, 1, had become a guessing
game in the music world, with gossips
speculating that Brad Pitt, Bruce
Springsteen or Tom Hanks might have
been the father.
Cypher, a filmmaker, carried the
children that Crosby fathered by artifi
cial insemination, Etheridge told
Rolling Stone magazine in the issue that
hits newsstands this week.
“We just got so tired of this secret,”
Etheridge said. “It wears you out. And
keeping this big secret goes against how
we are choosing to live our lives - very
openly.”
■""" "
Crosby, 58, and the father of three
other children, doesn’t plan to help raise
Bailey and Beckett - which is fine by
Etheridge and Cypher.
“If, you know, in due time, at a dis
tance, they’re proud of who their genet
ic dad is, that’s great,” said Crosby, the
singer and songwriter of Crosby, Stills
and Nash fame.
The Grammy-winning Etheridge
said Crosby’s wife, Jan, first suggested
the idea when the two couples chatted
during a vacation in Hawaii a few years
ago.
“It came from her, which was the
best, most perfect way,” Etheridge said.
“For one, he’s musical, which means a
lot to me, you know, and I admire his
work. And he has his own life, has his
own family.”
