Film review: The Sea Wall

Published on Thursday 7 January 2010 18:19

THE SEA WALL (12A) ** DIRECTED BY: RITHY PANH STARRING: ISABELLE HUPPERT, GASPARD ULLIEL, ASTRID BERGES-FRISBE, RANDAL DOUC

THERE'S something a bit staid and clunky about this otherwise handsome period film examining the complexities of imperialism in 1930s French Indochina. Adapted by Cambodian director Rithy Panh from Marguerite Duras's semi-autobiographical 1950 novel of the same name, it sees Isabel Huppert takes the lead as a frail woman attempting to hold on to a plantation made worthless by the breached sea wall that has wrecked her rice harvest.

With a misplaced sense of injustice directed against the corrupt authorities she believes have cheated her out of her rightful claim, she's forced to beg, borrow and barter with the banks in an effort to postpone the inevitable. When that strategy fails she not only takes to exploiting the charms of her 16-year-old daughter in an effort to entice a wealthy Chinese cad into helping them, but also tries to stir up discontent amongst dispossessed Cambodian villagers while guilt-tripping her surly son to remain within the family fold. Panh weaves all of this into a critique of imperialism and the cultural naivety it breeds, but Huppert's performance aside, dramatic momentum and tension are almost non-existent.