Director Scott Hicks’ visually stunning follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Shine appears, on its surface, to be a simple murder mystery.  Instead, Snow Falling on Cedars is an intricate tale of forbidden love, humanity, integrity and decency.  Based on the best-selling novel by David Guterson, Cedars is hauntingly beautiful, using long takes and close-ups that show the story more than telling it.

Set in 1954 San Piedro, a tiny fishing village north of the Puget Sound, Cedars opens aboard a ship on a particularly foggy evening.  The fisherman, a meticulous, by-the-book sailor, is found the next morning washed up in his own fishing net and with multiple stab wounds.  His accused killer is Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune), a young man born in America but of Japanese descent.  The murder and incarceration of Kazuo reawakens both the prejudices of the small town’s white population, with Pearl Harbor still fresh in their minds, as well as reminding those of Japanese ancestry of their imprisonment in internment camps the previous decade.

Cedars’ story concentrates on the aftermath of the death and subsequent trial, which are some of the finest courtroom scenes ever filmed.  But the strength of the film is its unusual narrative structure, offering numerous flashbacks to several different periods in the history of the town.  Some are directly related to the trial, while the majority of these flashbacks concentrate on the childhood relationship between Kazuo’s wife Hatsue (Youki Kudoh, Mystery Train) and the son of the town’s newspaper owner, Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke, The Newton Boys).

 Playmates as children, Hatsue and Ishmael grew closer and closer as the years passed.  Knowing that she was forbidden to date white boys, the two are forced to relegate their burgeoning passion to a hollowed-out cedar tree in the woods near each of their homes.  But World War II interrupts their already delicate bond; Hatsue and her family are dragged off to an internment camp, while Ishmael is sent to fight for his country.  Without divulging too much of the plot, Ishmael learns that Hatsue has called off their relationship while he is overseas, and the resulting scene still gives me chills when I think about it.

 In the present day, Ishmael, who has inherited the Island Review from his deceased father, recognizes the importance of the trial as it relates to the future of his town.  Together with Kazuo’s defense attorney Nels Gudmundsson (Max von Sydow, What Dreams May Come), Ishmael sets out to prove Kazuo’s innocence, despite both the bigotry of the majority of his advertisers and subscribers and the bitterness he feels toward Kazuo for stealing the heart of the girl that he still loves.

 It’s tough to pick a place to begin praising the hypnotic and atmospheric Cedars.  The film is jaw-in-your-lap beautiful, from the silvery-black look to the steely water at the film’s beginning, to the vibrant red strawberry patches that Ishmael and Hatsue played in as children, to the blinding white blizzard that engulfs the town during the final stretch of the trial, to the darkness that hangs over the candlelit courtroom as a result of the blizzard’s disruption of the building’s power.  This is definitely Oscar-worthy work from one of last year’s nominees, Robert Richardson (The Horse Whisperer).  Pleasantville’s art and production teams help give the film a rich, realistic look and feel.  Editor Hank Corwin (Natural Born Killers) pieces together the past and the future magnificently and without seeming like a Lone Star rip-off (unlike Simpatico).  Of the behind-the-scenes work, only the score (James Newton Howard, The Sixth Sense) is slightly annoying.

It’s very hard to imagine Ethan Hawke carrying a picture, and he doesn’t here.  It’s a great role for him because he has few lines, required mostly to look good and thoughtful instead.  James Cromwell (The Green Mile) is typically wonderful as the presiding judge, but von Sydow steals the show with his closing argument that all but flashes “For Your Consideration” at the bottom of the screen.  His character seems bewildered and frail, but he is still obviously a legal menace, capable of swaying any jury.

Hicks, who adapted Guterson’s novel with Ron Bass (Stepmom), should be praised if not just for assembling the talent necessary to pull the film off.  His direction is first-rate, repeatedly using long stretches with no dialogue (especially as the Japanese are taken from their homes to the internment camps), and his World War II scene is nearly as devastating as Saving Private Ryan’s Normandy invasion.  Hopefully Hicks and his crew will be remembered when it’s time to hand out nominations, if not awards.

2:06 -   for disturbing war images, strong language and sexual content