Set on the Andaman coast just north of Phuket, southern Thailand, and in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, "Wonderful Town" begins as a slow-paced romance between a man sent by his company to oversee the construction of a beachside resort and the innkeeper of a nearly deserted, inland hotel at which the man stays. Shortly after the man's arrival, it becomes apparent that a mutual spark of interest develops between the two and a gentle courtship ensues. Through the spare dialogue we learn care of the inn has passed from an aging mother and deceased father to the innkeeper and her brother who is part of a gang and has shirked all responsibility for the inn. The visitor has volunteered at his company to a do-nothing supervision of the construction project he says to escape congested Bangkok for a couple months but which the audience learns at the end may or may not be for another reason. The relationship grows over the several weeks from flirtation to physical intimacy, disturbed only by the antagonizing from several boys on scooters, the "gang" led by the innkeeper's brother, who seem to take some unwelcome interest in the visitor--at one point his car is broken into.
The film is beautifully shot, the tempo of desolate town life ably captured, and the complementary soundtrack superbly scored, but several of the overlong edits bring the pace to a needless crawl. Further, though the simplicity of the dialogue and seeming innocence of the couple's actions give the movie a realness, both characters are uncompelling, perhaps in part because the acting is just fair.
The story's main undoing though comes at the end over a puzzling act perpetrated by the innkeeper's brother and his gang. The audience is left questioning why they would conspire to take the visitor's life. Jealousy? Territoriality? Punishment? Even the depiction of the ambush and subsequent disposal of the body, though violent acts, seem unreal and unconvincing.
The antagonists' (including the brother's) characters are all underdeveloped and so too are their motivations.
Just before the ambush, the visitor is seen having a private and mysterious, emotionally charged conversation by telephone. The audience hears only his end of the talk and I thought at first the other party might be his father who was earlier described as someone from whom the visitor had grown estranged. A Thai friend though thought it was an ex-wife and that on learning this, the innkeeper's brother exacts the ultimate punishment for the visitor's misrepresenting his heart and intentions. If so, where and how was this revelation to the brother conveyed? Was something lost in subtitled translation? (And were this the case, my friend claims such an unsolicited act by an absent brother for his sister stretches credulity.)
Or is the inexplicability of the killing a forced metaphor for the devastation of the tsunami? This appears unlikely, as even natural disasters have causation, and moreover drawing parallels between the seeming unpredictability of an earthquake and the premeditated deliberation of a murder is a stretch.
On one thing both my Thai friend (though her review is harsher than mine) and I agree: "Wonderful Town" in its summation misses the mark.
For people with an interest in or familiarity with the area or culture, the cinematography alone may be worth a viewing. Others may want to pass.
Rate: 6.5 out of 10 (rounded to 7 for IMDb).
The film is beautifully shot, the tempo of desolate town life ably captured, and the complementary soundtrack superbly scored, but several of the overlong edits bring the pace to a needless crawl. Further, though the simplicity of the dialogue and seeming innocence of the couple's actions give the movie a realness, both characters are uncompelling, perhaps in part because the acting is just fair.
The story's main undoing though comes at the end over a puzzling act perpetrated by the innkeeper's brother and his gang. The audience is left questioning why they would conspire to take the visitor's life. Jealousy? Territoriality? Punishment? Even the depiction of the ambush and subsequent disposal of the body, though violent acts, seem unreal and unconvincing.
The antagonists' (including the brother's) characters are all underdeveloped and so too are their motivations.
Just before the ambush, the visitor is seen having a private and mysterious, emotionally charged conversation by telephone. The audience hears only his end of the talk and I thought at first the other party might be his father who was earlier described as someone from whom the visitor had grown estranged. A Thai friend though thought it was an ex-wife and that on learning this, the innkeeper's brother exacts the ultimate punishment for the visitor's misrepresenting his heart and intentions. If so, where and how was this revelation to the brother conveyed? Was something lost in subtitled translation? (And were this the case, my friend claims such an unsolicited act by an absent brother for his sister stretches credulity.)
Or is the inexplicability of the killing a forced metaphor for the devastation of the tsunami? This appears unlikely, as even natural disasters have causation, and moreover drawing parallels between the seeming unpredictability of an earthquake and the premeditated deliberation of a murder is a stretch.
On one thing both my Thai friend (though her review is harsher than mine) and I agree: "Wonderful Town" in its summation misses the mark.
For people with an interest in or familiarity with the area or culture, the cinematography alone may be worth a viewing. Others may want to pass.
Rate: 6.5 out of 10 (rounded to 7 for IMDb).