The Quiet American

Posted on The Film and Entertainment Lounge
14 April 2003

IN SUM: Graham Greene's novel offered Phillip Noyce a potential wealth of historical action for cinematic correlatives. However, Mr Noyce aimed at Mr Greene's allegorical drama instead and slackened the emotional development.

FRIENDS and I wanted to see City of God for the strong feedback that we heard. At the box office, however, we changed our minds after realizing that Phillip Noyce's film adaptaion of Graham Greene's Quiet American was also showing. The decision was well-motivated: there were three British nationals amongst us, and we were all eager to catch British actor Michael Caine's Academy Award-nominated performance.

Graham Greene's novel of the implications of cross-political involvements in 1950s Vietnam offered Mr Noyce a potential wealth of historical action for cinematic correlatives. However, Mr Noyce aimed at Mr Greene's allegorical drama instead and told the symbolist story of the nonchalance of the French army, the complacence of the British journalist (Mr Caine), the manipulations of the American collaborator (Brendan Fraser), and the resigned ways of the colonized (the lovely Do Thi Hai Yen).

Despite its colorful metaphors, the emotional development of Quiet American is slow and the climactic resolution obvious. Mr Noyce spends so much time building up the relationship between the British and Vietnamese characters that the subsequent scenes appear rushed. I am not aware of the full breadth of Mr Caine's acting canon, but the nuances of his performance here are exceptionally strong. Miss Yen 's character does not allow her to show the conflicts of the colonized native; nevertheless, her screen presence is a statement to the nobility of the Southeast Asian. True to form, Mr Fraser's acting is uninspired, but perhaps he is simply being a quiet American.