Adapted from Haruki Murakamis bestselling novel about unrequited love and loss, Norwegian Wood (which sounds like the name of a bad Nordic porno) follows Toru (Kenichi Matsuyama) a university student struggling to deal with his best friends suicide and his attraction to Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi), the grieving girlfriend. The duos attempt to find solace in sex proves too much for Naoko and she runs away, leaving him to pick up the pieces. Months later as they begin to reconnect the beautiful and coy Midori (Kiko Mizuhara) flutters in to further complicate Torus world.
From ethereal close-ups of fiddle heads to verdant valleys and mountains blanketed in cottony soft snow, cinematographer Ping Bin Lee delivers shot after gorgeous shot And if Norwegian Wood was a travelogue that might be enough, but its not and director Anh Hung Tran doesnt quite know what to do with the in-between bits.
Without much needed context the story is set in the turbulent 1960s it feels like everything is taking place in a vacuum. The storys erotic elements have been largely excised and the characters as a whole feel muted, most notably, Kenichi Matsuyamas Toru who comes across as a love-smitten idiot God only knows why ever good looking character in the movie wants to bed him. The performances are soulless, the dialogue is cumbersome, the eclectic musical choices are wildly inconsistent with songs repeatedly cut off mid-stream, and the two-hour plus run time is exacerbated by glacial pacing and the depressing subject matter.
Ultimately Norwegian Wood fails to cut It as prose, philosophy and entertainment.
