The Lady (2011)

The true story of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi (Michelle Yeoh), the woman at the core of Burma's democracy movement, and her British husband (David Thewlis). Despite long distance, long separations and a dangerously hostile regime, their love endures until the very end. Directed by Luc Besson (THE FITH ELEMENT). A powerful story anchored by an excellent performance by Michelle Yeoh. Curiously, the film received mostly negative review by western critics (Asian reviews were more favorable). While praising Yeoh's and Thewlis' performances, accusations of sentimentality and inauthenticity were targeted against the film which I found ridiculous. I admired it precisely because it didn't indulge in sentimentality and the inauthenticity claims were absurd with one critic decrying that a character was sitting when killed while he was standing up in the movie. Really? I'm not Besson's biggest fan but the film makers took great pains for authenticity by doing everything to recreate her surroundings to interviewing her family and compatriots. With Jonathan Woodhouse, Htun Lin, Benedict Wong and Jonathan Raggett.