Lust, Caution

Ang Lee helmed this anemic, NC-17 espionage tale set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War II. A young actress becomes a neophyte revolutionary when she joins a group that aspires to assassinate a collaborator with the Japanese, played by Tony Leung. Apparently they didn't like Leung's work in "Infernal Affairs 3." The scenes of subterfuge are few and not thrilling and the mien of the characters too rigid to be consistent with spying. But I will say this: for being a patriotic Chinese film, it doesn't have a lot of caterwauling. I appreciated that.

"Lust, Caution" is nearly 160 minutes long. I've said it before ("American Gangster," "The Assassination of Jesse James . . ."), and I'll say it again; very few movies need to be this long. The material might have been good in the hands of Hitchcock. (It's no accident the actress walks in front of a poster for his "Suspicion.") But here it never comes to life, despite its content and "Black Book"-like sleeping-with-the-enemy motif.