[yasr_overall_rating]
Amidst the sweeping cityscape of cosmopolitan Hong Kong, an ex-Marine falls in love with a ballerina from China. Against mounting cultural and religious pressure, the two star-crossed lovers risk it all in pursuit of true love.
I’m a sucker for love stories. When done right, they can reach down into the depths of your soul and reaffirm the love you feel for that special someone in your life. While “Lost for Words” has its intentions in the right place, its overall execution is what literally slows the story and the movie’s pacing, to a crawl. I could sit and watch a slow-moving, three hour epic as long as the characters and the narrative are kept interesting but here, director Stanley J. Orzel tries too hard to keep his film intriguing by introducing extraneous subplots that go nowhere and ultimately, detracts from the primary story.
The movie begins with Michael (Sean Faris), an ex U.S. Marine who has just come out of the military and landed a good job in Hong Kong, working in the I.T. department of a large American corporation. At the same time, Anna (Grace Huang) and her best friend Mei Mei (Joman Chiang) have just landed in Hong Kong from mainland China as they have been accepted into one of the city’s prestigious ballet dance companies. The film slowly unwinds as we get to know more about Michael and Anna and the fact that they are both reeling from breakups with their former partners.
Michael likes to jog in the morning and one day after passing Anna on the track, their eyes meet and we know it’s only a matter of time before their inevitable first date. For both, it’s obviously difficult trying to move on from their previous relationships but they become so engaged with each other, Michael teaching Anna to speak English and her teaching him Chinese, that their relationship materializes gradually, starting out as friends first and this aspect of the story works. The falling-in-love angle is never rushed, just so it can fit into the confines of a nearly two-hour movie but therein also lies the problem.
While it most certainly takes its time reaching its intended destination, it takes too long and it was actually at this point in the story, that things became really interesting but sadly, the movie abruptly ends. Granted, leaving an unseen finale to each viewer’s interpretation can sometimes be a good thing but here, I felt that they had spent the entire movie creating so much character development and story exposition, that they were building towards a really monumental finale and then it suddenly ends. Actually, the story that begins at the movie’s conclusion, would have made for a far more interesting idea.
We are introduced to secondary characters and their subplots but they are never followed up on and as a result, the movie suffers. Instead of concentrating on these less important characters, the film should focus more on the two leads and their plight and make that aspect of the movie more engrossing. The cinematography by Jimmy Wong is absolutely breathtaking and I saw images of Hong Kong I had never witnessed before. The film’s two two leads, Sean Faris and Grace Huang are both fine in their respective roles but I feel that the movie would have benefited from more capable actors.
As it stands, “Lost for Words” is a conventional love story filled with pedestrian characters, set against the exotic backdrop of beautiful Hong Kong and while the movie touches upon some compelling ideas, it never has the courage to see them through.
Available on DVD and VOD June 23rd
