Before viewing "Sausalito," I thought Andrew Lau would be moving into another dimension beyond his typical cliched, one-dimensional, comicbook character cutouts. I was wrong. Lau's direction, and weak script by Chan Sap Sam, produced a limp domestic drama, featuring the wasted talents of Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai. The two leads did their best with the limited material, but they couldn't save this film. Lau was a cintematographer and his neglect in not using the California Bay Area's scenic vistas to enhance this love story was inexcusable. Why shoot on location if not to take advantage of the environment?
The plot of having taxi driver Maggie fall in love with internet dot commer Leon was a good idea, but the contrived situations and the lack of emotions and tension in the relationship was apparent. The affair leading to a falling out and then reconciliation was a plotline that has been done time and again. When Valerie Chow is introduced as the jealous wedge, she appears and then disappears. It would have created more drama to keep Valerie as part of a love triangle to add some zest to the movie. Instead of injecting some life and vitality to the relationship, Lau's pedestrian handling of the film left me wanting. Unlike Wilson Yip's "Juliet In Love," where Yip added a twist to an oft told love story, Lau didn't do his homework. There is nothing in this film that makes it urgent or fresh. What we get is more like day old bread.
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