He's a handsome young photographer. She's a beautiful young textile artist. She's married to an abusive fisherman at least 20 years her senior, who happens to be the photographer's estranged father. Can you guess how the story progresses? Can you guess how it ends? Can you imagine how dreary it was? Ong-Art Singlumpong's The Sin demonstrates the point that every country with a distinctive national cinema is also perfectly capable of putting out formulaic crap. The only difference is that the international market doesn't see most of the crap: when we (or at least, when I) think of Thai cinema, we think of the dreamy experiments of Apichatpong Weerasethakul or Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, but the vast majority of Thai films are probably like the vast majority of American or French films: bad.

Taep (Andy Tangkaprasert) returns to his father's village after ten years away. He meets Ream (Helen Nima) in the village; he offers his umbrella to keep her dry when it starts raining. They exchange coy glances. When he arrives at the docks, he learns that Ream is the second wife of his father, Chief Chaung (Sorapong Chatree). Taep moves in with his "parents," and things are uncomfortable: lots of strained silences or barbed comments from Chief Chaung. A braver film would have made Chaung a human being, but this is not a brave film, so Chaung is a monster: Taep has to listen in silence as Chaung rapes Ream night after night, and Chaung belittles his son at every opportunity. Worse, at least in the eyes of the film, is that Chaung had promised to build Ream a boat, and it sits on the beach, half-finished.

The first half is filled with stolen glances, shy smiles, and PG-13 nudity; eventually, Chaung goes out on a long fishing trip, and we get slow-motion kisses, slow-motion shots of sunsets and cloth blowing in the wind, and more PG-13 nudity. It's an attractive film with attractive people; the cinematography, by Chitti Urnorakankji and Krisorn Buramasing, is suitably lush and vibrant, but it would be difficult to make the outdoor locations, such as the Emerald Cove, look less than gorgeous. The interior scenes, however, are half-heartedly photographed, and the film's listless editing throughout keeps it from maintaining anything resembling a pace. At 105 minutes, it's too long anyway, but it felt like an eternity. Some scenes are suitably sexy, and they tend not to be the ones with outright sex. There's one erotically charge sequence in which Ream measures Taep for a shirt, and the necessary contact and closeness take on a sensuality that the rest of the film, for all its soft-focus nudity, fails to achieve.

The one really great thing about it is Helen Nima's luminous face. She's beautiful, yes, but she's also got a range of expression that rivals many silent movie actresses. Unfortunately, this was apparent only when she wasn't talking. During conversation, she had three basic expressions: wide-eyed and concerned, wide-eyed and sexy, and scrunched up and weeping. However, she's brilliant compared to the expressionless Andy Tangkaprasert, who was so stiff that I wouldn't be surprised if he's a model chosen for his looks instead of his acting chops. Veteran actor Sorapong Chatree was the only steady presence in the film; it's too bad his character was such a caricature, but he managed a few human moments.

A reasonably good ending did little to salvage what feels like a straight-to-late-night-cable film. The DVD case features the familiar palm leaves that usually indicate a festival appearance, but even that's a sham: The Sin was one of several thousand to play at the Cannes film market, not to be confused with the actual competition, or even the out-of-competition invited films. It fails to deliver on almost all of its promises.

—May 17, 2006