Silk

Movie Title--  Silk

Release Year-  2007

Running Time--  1 Hour and 47 Minutes

Director--  Francois Girard

Cast--  Keira Knightly, Michael Pitt, Sei Ashina, Alfred Molina, Kenneth Welsh

A 19th century married French silkworm merchant turns smuggler after his town's supply of silkworms die from disease.

Herve Joncour is a military officer but jumps at the chance to switch professions when he is needed to acquire a supply of silkworms.  The silkworms that fuel the town's wealth have died due to disease.  The supply comes from Africa and it is soon discovered that all the worms from Africa are infected, so Herve is to travel to Japan to trade gold for silkworm eggs and smuggle them back to France.  He is successful at doing so and returns home to a fortune.  Although he is happy at home with his wife Helene (Keira Knightly), he can not get the Japanese woman he has met on his travels out of his head.

It is not long before he is need to travel back to Japan.  Herve goes willing back to Japan, unable to wait to see the woman again.  On this trip they have sex but the next morning she is gone and he does not see her again before he goes back to France, carrying ten boxes of silkworm eggs with him.  He has a hard time coping with not seeing the Japanese woman again and an even harder time knowing that he has cheated on his wife with this woman.  He insists he go back to Japan, although he has now heard that there is political trouble, to try to find out what has become of the woman he can not get out of his mind.

I am not sure why but I have always wanted to see this film but I assure you, it was not worth the wait.  I was very bored throughout the film and found my mind wandering more than once.  I really enjoy Keira Knightly but she wasn't really in the film enough to enjoy her acting and the few scenes she was in, I felt like they wasn't really much for her to work with.  

I feel like the character of Herve was constantly whining, as a lot of the film was him narrating the reasons why he was doing what he was doing and when the ending came along, you find out that he is actually narrating to a young man, so in essence, he truly is whining about what is going on.

If you are looking for a really interesting film to fill a few hours with, this is not the one to watch.  Skip this one all together and find something better to do with your afternoon and Don't Forget the Popcorn!