Anna and the King Review

In 1862, widow Anna Leonowens arrives in Siam with her son Louis, having accepted an invitation by the King to teach his eldest son. She soon finds she`s expected to teach all of his 58 children, as well as a couple of his wives - but her initial haughty disdain for what she sees as barbarian aspects of the court melts as she discovers the King to be an intelligent, charismatic man trying to modernise his feudal nation, which is located midway between British interests in Burma and French interests in Indochina. She even finds herself attracted to him ...This is the fourth version of what`s essentially a true story: the first, made in 1946, starred Irene Dunn as a very proper Anna and a hopelessly miscast Rex Harrison as the King; then, in 1955 came the glorious Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, with Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner giving definitive performances; and recently there was an animated version. This sumptuously staged new film, which was shot on location in Malaysia, and boasts an extraordinary production design by Luciana Arrighi, is enjoyable up to a point thanks to Jodie Foster`s convincing performance - and her near-perfect accent - and the extraordinary charisma of Chow Yun-Fat`s King. But the writers and director Andy Tennant have drastically changed the plot, adding an attack by Burmese forces, a traitor in the court, a tense climactic stand-off on a bridge - and, most disappointingly, have provided less romance than before. All Anna and the King get to do this time is dance a couple of times and look meaningfully at one another. A basic racist superiority still clouds this vision of Siam in the middle of the last century - and I kept wishing they`d burst into song!Margaret`s comments: This non-musical version of a well-loved tale has a much more political agenda than previous versions, delving into reasons why Siam was able to emerge into the twentieth century as in independent nation, unlike neighbours India, Burma and Indochina. King Mongkut is represented as an intelligent, far-seeing monarch, aware of the need for progress and just as aware of the need to move at a pace the traditions of his country can stand. He`s played very charismatically by Hong Kong action star Chow Yun-Fat. Jodie Foster brings a modern sensibility to Anna and a slight smugness that was a bit off-putting. Her character helped to remind me that these films are actually based on the diaries of the real Anna Leonowens and I wasn`t surprised to read that there are some doubts about their accuracy. You could imaging some Victorian widow getting carried away by the close proximity of wealth and power, particularly if Mongkut was as charismatic as he`s portrayed here. Her role in the final battle scenes is cinematically laughable. However, director Andy Tennant brings a richness and a grandness to the look of the film that`s very beautiful and entertaining.