Anna and The King VCD

Authenticity isn't much on the director's mind, despite claims to the contrary. This is an acting pageant with impressive costume and set design. The real King Mongkut (played here by Chow Yun-fat) was the best loved of Thailand's rulers, almost a deity, who brought peace and prosperity to the country. The idea that an English governess inspired him to greatness is offensive to most Thais and quite possibly untrue. The story of a widowed governess, Anna Leonowens, who came to the Thai court with her son, Louis (the annoying Tom Felton), and gained the respect of the king due to her prim English insistence on propriety is appealing to Western viewers who feel a nostalgic glow for the glory days of the British Empire.

Jodie Foster is so tight-lipped as Anna Leonowens that you're surprised she can pry them apart at all. Consistently overshadowed by her co-star, Jodie struggles gamely but is ultimately washed away by the tidal wave of charm that is Chow Yun-fat's charisma. Handicapped by the reams of Thai and English, dialogue Chow still erases Yul Brynner's portrayal of King Mongkut from viewer memory.

Leonowens and Mongkut clash, but develop a mutual respect that blossoms into a platonic passion. The movie handles the passion with skill and restraint, which is impressive given its clumsy handling of the requisite action scenes and "exciting" climax. One wishes there was more human drama and less nation building as the movie excels at the former and falls flat at the latter.

Despite its seductive appeal, the story is all fabrication. The diary of the court of King Mongkut reports one, inconsequential, meeting between Anna and the King during her tenure there. In all reality Ms. Leonowens probably fabricated her entire diary. A Thai director is filming a rebuttal film, a big-budget recreation of the life and times of King Mongkut which plans to ignore Leonowens' stay at the court entirely. Good news for those who support national film industries, but bad news for those of us seduced by the fabulous fictions of her diaries. The smoldering waltz, her confrontations with the King, her stay in court, and her platonic, borderline sexual, relationship with a man who represented sensual carnality in opposition to her puritanical sexuality were all creations of her mind, but what poignant, pining creations they were. In the exquisite fiction she created it's possible to see the tender, displaced woman that Anna Leonowens was, and the better life she craved for herself.

by Grady Hendrix