New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.

Follow Me

• Dark Shadows ***
• Darling Companion **1/2
• God Bless America ***
• Marvel's The Avengers ***1/2
• ReGeneration ***
• Sound of My Voice ***
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits ***1/2
• The Raven ***
• Safe **1/2
• The Lucky One 1/2*
• 4:44 Last Day on Earth **1/2
• Blue Like Jazz **
• The Cabin in the Woods ***1/2
• Damsels in Distress ***1/2
• Lockout **1/2
• The Three Stooges ***
• The Turin Horse ****
• We Have a Pope **1/2
• American Reunion **
• Goon ***
• More

• Bird of Paradise
• Maniac Cop
• Miss Representation
• Mother's Day (2012)
• Murder Obsession
• Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
• Underworld Awakening
• The Vow
• Clueless
• Haywire
• Hit!
• Men in Black
• New Year's Eve
• The Red House
• More

• Peter Lord
• Abel Ferrara
• Nicholas Sparks
• Whit Stillman
• Sean Hayes
• Terence Davies
• Peter Lord Interview
• Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
• Taika Waititi
• Will Ferrell
• Interview: Ewan McGregor [SF Examiner]
• Interview: the 'Project X' stars [SF Examiner]
• Interview: Oren Moverman
• Interview: Rachel McAdams
• Interview: Ti West
• Interview: Elizabeth Banks
• 2011: The Year's Best Films
• Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards
• The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
• My Top 100 Films [Updated]
• My Top 60 Directors [Updated]
• Christmas Movies
• Essential Halloween & Horror Movies
• Cult Movies
• More Features and Interviews

• Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, by Alonso Duralde
• Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
• James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
• Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
• More Books

• Home
• Reviews A-C
• Reviews D-F
• Reviews G-J
• Reviews K-M
• Reviews N-Q
• Reviews R-T
• Reviews U-Z

The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

SEARCH MOVIES / CELEB

Silk (2007)

Rating: 1 Star (out of 4)

Worm Limits

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Silk on DVD

Michael Pitt is badly miscast and quite awful in the role of 19th century silk trader Herve Joncour; he doesn't even sound credible pronouncing his character's name. Keira Knightley plays his wife who waits while he takes three increasingly dangerous trips to Japan for silkworm eggs. Herve is drawn to a beautiful girl there, but nothing happens. A pair of letters written in Japanese -- of all things -- is supposed to ignite the climax, but the otherwise talented French-Canadian director Franois Girard (The Red Violin) dampens it, choosing instead to frame pretty pictures and frost them with a constant, twittering score. Skilled actors Alfred Molina and Koji Yakusho are trapped in the boredom. Girard and Michael Golding adapted Alessandro Baricco's 1996 novel.

Starring: Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley, Alfred Molina, Koji Yakusho, Mark Rendall, Sei Ashina, Leslie Csuth, Marc Forini
Written by: François Girard
Directed by: François Girard
MPAA Rating: R for sexuality and nudity
Running Time: 116 minutes
Date: September 14, 2007