Rating: 
Summary: LOVE KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES....
Review: This is a story about love and what some people do for love... This is how I perceived it. I thought it was a beautiful love story. I couldn't really consider it much of a courtroom drama because the courtroom scenes were boring and slow moving. Although I thought Max Von Sydow, as the defendant's attorney, played his character with great finesse and delivered his lines so perfectly. Overall the acting was very good in the film, and the scenery was totally beautiful. Between the cinematography and direction, I would recommend this movie. It was a slow moving story, and I myself, even feel asleep for a couple of minutes. The only character I really felt for was Ishmael. The girl he loved had treated him with such insensitivity and cruelity, Yes, i know this was back in the early 1900s' but if u really love someone, no boundary should come between you and your love. Snow Falling on Cedars is a good love story, a little slow at times but delivers good performances and beautiful scenery.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful
Review: There are different movies meant to be watched when you're in a specific mood. This is an excellent drama. The atmosphere of the whole movie is rather slow, but you wouldn't be watching this movie if you wanted guts and gore. The cinematography in Snow Falling On Cedars is breathtaking. The camera itself almost takes on its own character. I especially liked how Scott Hicks used special directing techniques such as overlapping dialogue to build the emotional impact at certain parts of the movie. The story itself is very moving as well, and I'm glad that ending is actually believable. Starting out after World War II, a Japanese American is accused of murder. The majority of the movie is told through flashbacks, and it tells of the relationship between an American man and a Japanese-American woman just before World War II. I highly recommend this movie, and the DVD, along with a great transfer, has a good amount of extras.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful Cinematography
Review: At first I was apprehensive to see this movie but in the end mygirfriend and I watched it. We were mainly interested in the fact thaton the surface it seemed like a love story between a white man and an Japanese women. I am a white man and my girlfriend is Asian. I was very quickly engaged by the beautiful photography. At the start of the film we are immersed within a foggy night upon a fishing boat where foul play is a foot. The beautiful cinematography continues throughout the stylish film creating a cold, wet, and wintery atmosphere juxtaposed with scenes of warmth and summertime. Through the use of flashbacks the doomed relationship between the white boy and Japanese girl is slowly revealed. Meanwhile he struggles to make a moral choice which will affect her current situation. This captivating film truly deserves full attention. END
Rating:
Summary: Putting on the ending
Review: The director of this film has produced an amazing work filled with a vivid imagery that flows well with the original storyline of the novel. The film was underrated and under appreciated by many professional critics. It explores into a frightening complexity and depth the level of racial aggression and apprehension that existed between Japanese-Americans and the Caucasian-Americans in the western United States at the end of WWII. Hawke is wonderful as Ishmael Chambers. He is, as usual, not appreciated by the film public for his understated mastery of emotion. He plays the bitter and resentful veteran well. Piling blame and disappointment onto the old love that he had for Hatsue... yet still clinging to that love. The show was really stolen away by the wonderful visual imagery and poetic cinematics of the film though. The movie takes a step beyond the novel, providing us with a more comfotable and liveable ending. Putting the final cap on a wonderful film.
Rating:
Summary: A beautifully filmed movie.
Review: A beautifully filmed movie. However, like others, I do think the movie lacked some of the book's heavy. With that said, the plot is well executed and the telling of the story in flashbacks seemed to work well. Good direction and the acting is excellent throughout. The DVD is outstanding...as one reviewer said, "...by far the first thing audiences will notice in this film is the cinematography".
Rating:
Summary: Full of imagery, but a little slow.
Review: Unfortunately, this movie does not capture the drama that the novel had. If you have not read the novel, or don't care, you should enjoy the movie. The cinematography is wonderful, but the story moves along a little slow. The love story and the courtroom battle seem to drag on until the end of the movie when they are resolved. The movie should have been 15 minutes shorter. The good thing, however, about the length, is that it gives you time to soak in the wonderful scenery and film editing this movie has, that alone is worth the price of admission. The DVD features a 15 minute behind the scenes, and a commentary. Pretty Nice. Reccomended.
Rating:
Summary: This is by far one of the most beautiful films ever made.
Review: If there ever was a film that was close to perfection, I would say Snow Falling On Cedars is about the best contender. I have yet to see a heavy duty drama with such incredible cinematography, music and storyline. The plot is so well executed by telling the story in partial flashbacks, that the characters mold perfectly before your eyes. The music alone could speak for the scenes in this film. The acting is so poised and penetrating, that you feel like you are interacting on a personal level with the players, rather than just observing them. I won't give the plot away. But what I will tell you is that this film's social message is very strong and not one we usually hear about. Perhaps because it is such a scar on our nation's past. Snow Falling On Cedars is a film as far as medium is concerned. But when watching it, I felt I was looking at a painting and reading a poem. This is a drama which words can do no justice to. Like he did in Shine, Director Scott Hicks once again waves a magic wand which conjures the most dazzling performances out of his actors. There is a balance in this film between cinematography, music, sound and performances that I have never seen before- and that's coming from someone as hypercritical as myself. By far the first thing audiences will notice in this film is the cinematography. If it does not take your breath away, then you must already be dead.
Rating:
Summary: Artistic but lacks drama
Review: I have to say that his movie was beautiful but it lacked drama. I recommend a similar movie titled Come See the Paradise which focuses more on the plot and drama than the cinematography.
Rating:
Summary: faithful rendition of the novel
Review: I am always skeptical with transition from a novel into a movie. Some directors have done their jobs marvellously & some of them lost the plot along the way. It took the author 10 years to write this best-seller & initially, I remained dubious if the director, Scott Hicks was able to compress the novel to almost 2 hours of viewing. What worried me the most was the ability of the director to convey the mood & atmosphere of the novel into the silver screen. Or else the essence of the novel would be lost. To be truthful, he's not only faithful to the novel but did the job with flying colours. The cinematography was simply superb & breathtaking. I was enthralled throughout the viewing absorbing every little bits that were offered to me. The production team of Frank & Marshall who had worked with Ethan Hawke before in Alive delivered yet another slick production. Scott Hicks deserved to be commended for a job well-done after his previous offering of The Shining, & the veteran, Max Von Sydow delivered a punchy performance as the defendant's lawyer. My girl friend, who hadn't read the novel before, found the movie rather abstract & at times, she couldn't grasp the story in totality particularly in how the film shots were shown. She reckoned that the story line itself was too simplistic & had been dragged on FAR too long. Just to prove my point, she slept half way through the movie. For her, she reckoned it's a so-so movie but for me, who had read the novel before, it's just sheer magic to see the novel on silver screen. I guess by having the author as one of the co-producers made a lot of difference. Highly recommended. It might not be to everyone's taste especially those people who are already used to David E Kelley's style in the series Practice but we ought to remember that deep down, this movie is still a love story, a story about how to let go & who-did-it plot was simply a percipitant to keep the ball rolling.
Rating:
Summary: Poetry in Motion
Review: The real star of Snow Falling on Cedars is director Scott Hicks. Working from David Guterson's beautiful novel, and with the help of the legendary cinematographer Robert Richardson he is able to create sequences of film of such intense beauty that you almost forgive the fact that film doesn't quite come togather as a whole. The story revolves around the death of a Caucasian fisherman in a Pacific North Western town a few years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. An American born man of Japanese descent stands accused of his murder. Meanwhile a local newspaper man Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke) watches from the sidelines, he has a vested interest because the man who is accused is married to his childhood sweetheart, his only true love Hatsue Miyamoto (Youki Kudoh). But the synopsis doesn't indicate how complex the story is, it is told with flashbacks, and flashbacks within flasbacks, making a mess of the film, but a beautiful and poetic mess. The performance were unfairly criticised by the critics, specifically Ethan Hawke's. His Ishmael is a bitter, heartbroken and wounded war veteran, and Hawke's understated performance expresses that perfectly. A man who lives in his father's shadow, never quite living up to the Chambers name. He has lost an arm in the war, and his bitterness towards Hatsue effects his reporting of the case. Now cynical and jaded he says "Facts you can cling to, emotions just fly away". The best performance in the film is Max Von Sydow's. He plays Nel Gud Mundson who is the accused's attorney. Saddened by the community's deep prejudice, now old and crusty he trembles with anger when he addresses the jury. Von Sydow should have been a shoe in for the supporting actor Oscar, but alas he was ignored. This film is also more observant when dealing with rascism. You see movies like THE HURRICANE idiotically simplify a system of thought that runs through out a society into a character of a bad cop. Snow Falling on Cedars is wiser, exposing the prejudice to be a deeply held belief among all citizens of a commuinity. A prejudice that is dormant in times of piece but all too apparent in time of war. I really wanted to love this film, something about beautiful imagery playing under a powerful musical score gets to me. Although I give the film 3 stars, I'm reccomending because it is both frustrating and inspiring. A film that demands repeated veiwings, but doesn't make that task easy. If you can appreciate dense poetic films like THE THIN RED LINE or THE ENGLISH PATIENT, you'll appreciate this one even if its not in the same league as those two masterpieces. I suspect Snow Falling on Cedars is a great film, but its structure makes that greatness hard to get to. It is a difficult film, but worth the plunge.
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