Besson’s best known films are Léon and The Fifth Element, the former controversially violent (it features 12-year-old Natalie Portman being trained as an assassin), the latter gaudy and cartoonish. He hardly seemed the man to be helming a feature on such a well respected and revered pro-democracy campaigner and the extreme complexities of her country. But Besson has dialled down his usual histrionics and the resulting film is not to be sniffed at.
The Lady begins in 1947 with the assassination of General Aung San, the leader of the Burmese Communist Party, architect of the country’s independence from Britain and father of Aung San Suu Kyi. This bloody scene is a red herring. Besson hasn’t turned the Nobel Peace Laureate’s story into a trigger-happy action film, and thankfully uses onscreen violence sparingly.
1947 is quickly left behind and suddenly it’s 1998. Oxford academic, Michael Aris (David Thewlis), has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and is asked by his doctor if he would like the nurse to arrange for his wife to pick him up from the hospital. Not a chance, as Dr Aris’s wife is thousands of miles away, under house arrest and has not seen her husband for three years. He initially refuses to let Aung San Suu Kyi (Michelle Yeoh) know of his diagnosis because once out of Burma, the ruling military junta will not let her back in.
Another jump in time takes us back to 1988, where Suu is an Oxford housewife, who leaves behind her husband and two children to return to Burma to care for her sick mother. Here, she witnesses the brutal treatment of protesters, the absence of democracy and the need for peaceful reform.
After this bumpy beginning of time shifts and explaining who’s who and what’s what, The Lady evens out and largely succeeds in mixing the personal and the political. That’s not to say that the film doesn’t have its kinks. Trying to squeeze Suu’s life story, as well as the history of Burma in the 20th century, into two hours and ten minutes is impossible and there are huge gaps. But the temptation of too much exposition is avoided, and genuine BBC reports by John Simpson fill in some details and add a sense of reality to proceedings.
Yeoh and Thewlis have no easy task, the former in particular. The Malaysian actress conveys the courage and quiet determination of Suu without slipping into insincere saintliness. However, some of the dialogue between the two seems unnatural, with lines such as ‘You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hold you in my arms’ better suited to a TV melodrama. The soundtrack also seems out of place. This story is remarkable enough that it doesn’t need over-powering strings to ramp up the dramatic tension.
Some domestic scenes hit a bum note too. The sight of Michael having to call in his sister to cook for his sons because he makes lumpy porridge feels horribly out of kilter. I’m sure Suu was missed for more than her culinary skills. It would have been nice for her academic achievements to have featured more prominently to highlight that she was more than just a housewife.
Despite this, Besson hasn’t trivialised – or sensationalised – the politics of The Lady. I didn’t leave the cinema feeling patronised, but I wasn’t terribly enlightened. Much of what is depicted is widely known, but as an introduction to one of the world’s most courageous citizens, it works quite well. What it does prove is that when Besson ditches the bombast, he can make compelling films.
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Posted on January 4, 2012
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