A sweeping romantic epic set in Japan in the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.
... the movie is a well-meaning, vaporous bore, enlivened only by occasional traces of Showgirls-style camp and plasticine tears trickling down impeccably powdered cheeks.
– Rene Rodriguez,
Miami Herald,
27 Dec 2005
fresh:
... a fascinating glimpse at a lost world of women with skin of porcelain and spines of steel, and the men in their thrall.
– Roger Moore,
Orlando Sentinel,
27 Dec 2005
fresh:
Ultimately, Memoirs of a Geisha compares unfavorably with the book, though it offers pleasures of its own.
– Moira MacDonald,
Seattle Times,
27 Dec 2005
rotten:
Memoirs of a Geisha is everything you'd expect it to be: beautiful, mesmerizing, tasteful, Japanese. It's just not very hot.
– Stephen Hunter,
Washington Post,
27 Dec 2005
fresh:
The subject remained interesting enough to this provincial American to accept and ultimately enjoy the film's well-worn romanticism, even with its resignedly tired happy ending.