Leonie

Leonie (2010) was directed by Hisako Matsui. The film was based on a book written by Masayo Duus about a woman named Leonie Gilmour.

Emily Mortimer portrays Gilmour. Her partner, Yone Noguchi is played by Shidô Nakamura.

Emily Mortimer is a skilled and charming actor. The screenplay apparently reflects Leonie's life accurately. (Obviously, I'm not an expert, but from what I can learn, it's a solid biography.)

The problem is that the film represents Gilmour's complex life history. It's interesting, but the movie implies that her great achievement was to give birth to a gifted son, the artist Isamu Noguchi. Still, the movie was titled Leonie, not Isamu, and it just didn't work for me.

Leonie has a very low IMDb rating of 6.1. I thought that Emily Mortimer's performance was so strong that I bumped my rating up to 7.

Very well directed, acted and a fascinating story of on of the 20th century's greatest sculptors who even has his own beautiful museum in New York City. A great place to visit to see 230 works from his own collection plus temporary exhibits..

This is an EXCELLENT movie, the acting is incredible, Emily Mortimer is wonderful to watch as are all the other actors. This is set at the turn of the 20th Century, based on the TRUE STORY of Leonie, mother of sculptor and artist Isamu Noguchi. This film is a beautiful depiction of a richly varied life across borders, and how childhood shapes personality.

The crew on this movie include many high profile names such as the Oscar winning composer Jan A. P. Kaczmarek (Finding Neverland) and Director of Photography Tetsuo Nagata from "La Vie en Rose".

The original version that was released in Japan to rave reviews and ranked high in their top 10 box office during it's opening, is like a David Lean style epic. Set in the early 1900s, the production design and locations across the USA and Japan are nostalgically wonderful and the amount of effort put the production of this film shows clearly through the amazing footage and photography. Cinematographers take note. The American cut is unfortunately a subpar edited version of this really great Japanese original; they cut 40 mins of footage out for reasons such as "impatient US audiences" and difficulty getting a longer movie into art-house theatres under limited theatrical release. Ironically, the pacing and editing of the longer version far surpass the USA cut. In fact the longer cut seems to last less time because of the way the story is told through the editing. They sadly changed from a standard chronological movie to an unnecessary flashback style edit which makes it perhaps difficult to follow.

Without further ado, I can only say if you can, watch the Japan original cut as this is how the director intended the movie to be made and with the additional 40 minutes of relevant footage, based on true events, this charming story is a beautiful film, full of life, philosophy and feeling.

This is a beautiful, haunting true story of a fascinating, independent- minded young woman at the turn of the 20th century.

Her life ends up crossing boundaries, borders, and oceans. Though her name may be obscure, she created a legacy that lives on, and may live on for centuries.

The film is beautifully crafted, artfully presented, enormously well written and well acted. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves true stories artfully presented, and beautiful, heartwarming, uplifting films.

I found the entire 102-minute running length of this movie to be extraordinary. Narrated by Emily Mortimer as Leonie Gilmour, this is a movie that lives up to the title character's signature quote to her life-long friend at turn-of-the-20th-century Bryn Mawr, "Don't bore me by being ordinary!" She winds up following her own advice at the crossroads of her life and then passing it onto her son when he needs to choose between a conventional life in medical school or pursuing his visions as an artist. After left in New York with child by the talented Japanese poet whose works she edited and promoted with success, she heads west to California to live with her mother - wonderfully essayed by Mark Kay Place. Despite her mother's warnings, she takes her son with her to Japan where once again, faux husband Nore wants to take care of her but does not accord her the respect she demands. The rest of the film is her journey to have her children educated and to grow while moving as nomads teaching and learning what they can. It is mesmerizing and beautifully photographed. Then the focus starts to shift away from Leonie's tale to the independent growth of son Isamu.

The shift slow the momentum just a bit toward its rather benign conclusion until we get one final revelation as to how her daughter was born. Overall, this is a fantastic journey and a most entertaining, gratifying and well-acted tale.