It's 1942 Singapore. Adrienne Pargiter (Glenn Close) joins the women and children evacuating from the approaching Japanese only to have their ship sunk. She and others swim ashore to Sumatra and imprisoned in an internment camp. As they face mounting brutal treatment, they decide to organize a choir.
There are a lot of great actresses here; Frances McDormand, Pauline Collins, Cate Blanchett, Julianna Margulies plus many many others. The different characters can get to be too numerous. However the main characters played by the better known actresses remain center stage. Ten years before, the stories would be shocking and ground breaking. After Schindler's List, that kind of inhumanity is no longer as shocking and it seemed that this movie held back the most shocking visuals. For example, when the woman gets burnt alive, we are barely allowed to see anything. The beatings were all stage crafted. They could have stage a more brutal vision.
There are a lot of great actresses here; Frances McDormand, Pauline Collins, Cate Blanchett, Julianna Margulies plus many many others. The different characters can get to be too numerous. However the main characters played by the better known actresses remain center stage. Ten years before, the stories would be shocking and ground breaking. After Schindler's List, that kind of inhumanity is no longer as shocking and it seemed that this movie held back the most shocking visuals. For example, when the woman gets burnt alive, we are barely allowed to see anything. The beatings were all stage crafted. They could have stage a more brutal vision.