Silk

I quite liked this movie despite its several flaws, disloyalties to the book and all negative reviews. I'll start with what I didn't like: First of all, Michael Pitt. I think he didn't understand Herve at all. He didn't understand why he loved Helene (he actually didn't seem to feel that extreme love for her as he does in the book, it seems as if he shares a stronger bond with the mistress) or why he had that certain fascination with the mistress, he didn't get at all what was Herve Joncour's core. There were also several misunderstandings with the book, but then again it was not a proper book to be made into a movie because the important thing there is Alessandro Baricco's unique way of writing, the story itself isn't appealing enough to be turned into a movie because it's only enjoyable with such writing, and Baricco's writing can't be showed in the movie.
One thing I found quite annoying was the fact that the dialogues in Japanesse weren't translated in the subtitles and it made you feel kind of lost, as if you were missing part of the movie. Perhaps the director wanted to show the alienation of this French man in foreign lands, very foreign lands, but it certainly doesn't work for the audience it just confuses it.

I think the movie was loyal to the book in general lines, the whole anger with the Asian chick was monumentally stupid, in the movie it was mentioned several times that she was not Japanesse, so drop it. If any, that's not the major problem with the adaptation, it's like telling me they couldn't cast, I don't know, Anne Hathaway for Becoming Jane because she was not British, it's the exact same argument, if the actor's right for the role, it doesn't matter his nationality. I know it was a big deal the whole not-asian-eyes thing, but still, there were worse problems. And I also didn't mind the censorship of the letter.

Its runtime certainly isn't an issue either. Many people have consider this an extremely slow movie, but I must say I didn't at all, I actually found it really entretaining. So, I guess that's subjective.

The real and most important problem, apart from Pitt's poor performance (because other issues mentioned weren't major), is that the emphasis of the film is concentrated in the visuals rather than in the development of the characters (which I consider to be way more important in order to make a movie work).

However, the film has got a breathtaking cinematography that manages what the script (and Michael Pitt) couldn't: making Baricco's poetry visual. The score is also very good. Keira Knightley shows us once more that she's to be taken seriously and that she is for sure the most promising young actress nowadays. She played Helene in such a sutil way, so innocent, o loyal and in love, so authentic and yet so intriguing. Overall, it's a very good film, I think the objective was achieved, despite some adaptation and other minor problems.