Sausalito (2000) User Reviews

Fun

[leekandham · 6/10 · 10 February 2003]

It's rather nice occasionally to see a romantic movie that's not based on teenage puppy-love, and Sausalito falls right into this category.

Maggie Cheung plays Ellen, a single mother in her mid-30s and makes a living as a taxi driver in San Francisco. Meanwhile, Mike (Leon Lai) is the CEO of his successful internet start-up company. However, it's developing its own cash problems, and business problems are hitting his own personal life. On one night to get away from it all, Leon borrows someone he doesn't know, Maggie, for a trick to woo the chicks, but instead attracts the attention of Maggie. And so a bumpy taxi-ride lies ahead.

Sausalito is a feel-good movie about life in a world that you begin to realise are full of strangers. The story is well written, with some very good scenes that involve her son, Scott.

Although I wouldn't call this an outstanding film, there is a lot of good subtext in the film, and the story flows very well. The story also acknowledges San Francisco culture by including addressing many of the bigotries that people outside of San Francisco may not be readily accepting as yet, one of which is the inclusion a homosexual, multi-racial couple of contrasting ages.

This is definitely one to add to the 'To Watch' list.

For Maggie Cheung

[aaawwq · 6/10 · 11 October 2020]

The poster made me think it was a more profound story, but after watching it I found it humorous and a bit hilarious.

Maggie Chueng makes the character quite dimensional. The abruptness in offering to sleep together on the first night she meets Mike, the eagerness she puts on makeup before planning to run into Mike, the surprise and curb of tears when hearing Mike say 'I love you', the cannot-stop crying after she finds out Mike's affair. The only problem, however, is that she is way too beautiful for this character. Played by Maggie, Ellen is definitely not an ordinary taxi driver - single mom. She is laid-back. She falls in love. She, is a human being and a perfect match for the handsome, intelligent and bad-tempered Mike.

The story is also worth watching: normal and real enough for you to relate to but also a bit dreamy with the introduction of a golden bachelor. A man and woman fall in love after ONS (actually 2 times) . It takes time for them to realize that and to learn to take it seriously. Then the perfection is broken by crisis in the guy's business and loyalty. Finally the two are reconciled, for sure. The most dramatic scene for me, is the elegant Ellen driving her cab and park at the mansion of Mike. If it isn't true love, I cannot see it anywhere else.

Maggie's Performance The Film's Saving Grace

[Bishonen · 3/10 · 21 June 2000]

*warning: potential spoilers'

A number of intriguing disparate elements:

-the San Francisco location, beautifully shot and actually moving beyond the tired Golden Gate Bridge/Rice-a-Roni tourists' view of the city and utilizing some unique neighborhoods like the Castro and the Mission.

-Director Andrew Lau, better known for action movies like `The Storm Riders' branching into romantic comedy.

-Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai, promising that lightning might strike twice after `Comrades'.

Sadly, the result is far, far less than the sum of its (potential) parts. The film's concessions to its setting and pre-Millennial era consist of utilizing San Francisco's image as a dot-com haven and the unsettled lives of its protagonists in this society results in something laughably half-baked; the `Nirvana' site proposed by Leon Lai's dot-comer is ludicrous but a more problematic issue is Mike's character as presented in the script and acting. Mike's (Lai) character is woefully underdeveloped and seems a blank slate, a Rorschach man-boy with vague economic prospects and plastic, generic aspirations. It's worse than presenting him as an `everyman'; he has no personality as written and Lai, as usual, brings little to the table as far as making Mike a flesh-and-blood cinematic creation. He barely reacts to his surroundings or changes facial expression throughout the hour-and-forty minute running time and the film's brutally myopic focus on his male protagonist only goes to show the filmmakers projecting their own male narcissism of the dullest kind.

Would that the film stayed, or at least conceded, some more focus to Maggie Cheung. For the first thirty minutes, her side of the drama actually shows some promise; a restless, struggling (we can overlook the ridiculously plush 2-story house she rents on a single-mother cab-driver's salary.in San Francisco's current economic ruthlessness, a millionaire would be hard-pressed to afford such abodes in even newly gentrified neighborhoods in SF) and questioning woman flirting with promiscuity, wanting more (of what? She doesn't seem to know and we're intrigued to find out) than the boundaries of her life. It's all due to Maggie. She makes the drama worth watching; she IS the drama, as the thin script and herky-jerky plot/character development would leave lesser actors in the lurch and audiences asleep by the end of the first act. Fear, defiance, ambivalence, joy, panic, pain, tranquility, emotional overdrive dance across her face effortlessly---it's no accident she evoked the spirit of silent actors so evanescently in `Irma Vep'. Without words or belabored emoting, Cheung lets the audience into the emotional life of a cinematic being like a funhouse of hidden, wonderfully discovered dimensions. The script woefully, colossally lets her down by the middle as she winds up playing martyr and displaced maternal figure to Lai's tiresome Peter Pan stunted -development dweeb (yes, he's cute and will probably make lots of dough, but would someone like her give this loser more than two minutes after the conversation starts?).

More minuses: the film's homophobic slant, strange for a film set in San Francisco. Richard Ng's self-deprecating gay landlord character is an insult, even as a `mother' substitute for Mike who had essentially raised him from childhood, it's necessary for him to emphasize in a dialogue scene with Maggie his inadequacy in teaching Mike how to be a `real' man. It's one thing to make gay characters the butt of jokes (what else would you expect from producer Wong Jing's Neanderthalic sensibility) but it's far more horrid, embarrassing and insulting when a film purports to give you sympathetic gay characters and then railroads them into self-flagellation over their `deviancy' no matter how benignly presented. It's not the film's worse problem---I won't even go into the ludicrous climax, an unbelievable, corny and trite act of self-redemption by our dot-com hero---but it's symptomatic of the film's regressive attitude towards gender roles and a cheap, senselessly one-dimensional attitude towards characters who don't fall within the hetero man/boy paradigm.

Maggie, wonderful as she is, doesn't quite escape. Still worth seeing for her---keep your eyes on Maggie and your expectations very, very, very low.

A romantic comedy, with very little of either.

[Mike Astill · 3/10 · 23 July 2008]

Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai are among my favourite Asian actors, but any hopes I had that they would set the screen on fire again after their partnership in 'Comrades: Almost a Love Story' were soon dashed as it became clear this unassuming romantic comedy contains very little comedy, and not much romance either.

It starts off well enough. Ellen (Cheung) is a cab driver in San Francisco, raising a young son. Invited to a nightclub, she ends up having an uncomfortable one-night stand with Mike (Lai), who appears to be some kind of dot-com playboy millionaire. I say 'appears to be' as for some reason Lai underplays the role to such a degree that he seems bored most of the time - and this rubbed off on me.

Naturally the two hit it off and begin to learn more about each other, until Mike's business deals start to go sour, which disrupts his relationship with Ellen. Can true love overcome such a hurdle, etc.?

The opening half hour focuses on Ellen, and Cheung is more than capable of drawing us her lonely, struggling character. It's regrettable then that the focus shifts to Lai's rather unlikable character for the remainder of the film, and even more regrettable than the film starts to pile more and more unlikely scenarios on us right up to its (anti)climax.

I was actually sad I didn't like this flick. The setting is certainly different, it's well shot by Andrew Lau (although the musical score is horrible), and I usually enjoy Cheung and Lai. There was simply more NOT to like, though, including an uncomfortable and almost homophobic role for the wonderful Richard Ng (Wong Jing's influence, I suspect), and the wasting of Valerie Chow as a corporate femme fatale.

If you're a huge fan of the stars, you may see past the story and enjoy this one. It didn't work for me, though.

The Deltamac version looks decent enough, and the subtitles are OK, although definitely not perfect.

characters

[leeyinyin_2000 · 15 January 2001]

Both main characters are portrayed well in this movie. We can see the mature, independent divorced woman in a Maggie cheung or Ellen and a selfish childish easy going guy in a Leon Lai or Mike. Both are portrayed perfectly. We might dislike a character like Mike in the story, but that is fact!

The only unbalanced thing is the setting for Ellen's house which considered too lux for a cab driver. Maybe there should be a line to cope with such situation, like the ex-husband is supporting them, and she work as a cab driver just as part timer, etc etc.

In a rough way, this film is excellent! All the dialogues, the house interiors, costumes, and fact of life is described very well.

Breaking cliché's

[wobelix · 9/10 · 26 April 2003]

Every love story is the same, as is every whodunit, thriller, or war movie... This is a brilliant love story, and the principal cast has done a nice job.

Better yet is the work behind the camera; 'Hong Kong Cinema' has never shown any fear to go 'beyond' the technical possibilities, and although there seems to be some restrain in regards of camera-movements, lighting & editing, it is still refreshing and exiting. Every one in Hollywood ought to get a training job in Hong Kong !!

There are many things to talk about, but let's pick one: MAGGIE CHEUNG. Everybody worldwide knows her by now, since no one has an excuse for not knowing her after her performance in IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. She is sensational. Truly gifted. And THE Lady MacBeth of this new century ! Why hasn't anybody seen that yet ! She's so glorious, so multi-faceted, so marvelous.

As is the talk in the world of opera: why another Lady MacBeth, Carmen, Tosca, where there are already so many on vinyl or celluloid... Every generation has its right for their own heroes in archetypical roles. Maggie Cheung ought to be our 'own' Lady MacBeth. (And I know just the perfect place to set the Shakespearean play, and who to cast beside her..). Until that moment, relish her performances that do exist. As in this lush romance.

Surprisingly,a nine movie to watch

[shermantuan · 9/10 · 2 April 2023]

I live in the Bay Area, I know San Francisco, I know Sausalito, and I was an Internet entrepreneur in the early days of the Internet At first I worried that this movie might be a stupid April 1st joke In the end I think the movie Sausalito pays fair tribute to both the Chinese entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley, especially after the Silicon Valley Bank example.

But i don't think the chinese name of this movie love at first sight Well interpreted the whole movie especially from the one night stand.

This time Maggie Cheunge played the role of a hippie style, taxi driver, which is totally different from all other movie she used to play, I would like to give her a big applause.