Great concept, so-so execution. An interviewer and his cameraman sit down to interview a long-retired actress who's been shunning other reporters for years. The interviewer brings her a gift, a key that she lost long, long ago. It opens up her memories of a man whom she helped in her youth, in the era before WWII, and we see those memories entangled in her film career. These melded flashbacks are a beautiful idea. Unfortunately, for some reason the interviewer and his cameraman come along for the trip, filming the events inside the actress' head, and eventually even participating in them. This conceit never works, and in fact the film pretty much fails just because of it. It doesn't at all help that both of these characters are constantly used for unnecessary comic relief (especially the cameraman, whose reaction shots I'm guessing Satoshi Kon found hysterical, as they're in there so frequently). If Kon had left these two characters out of the fantasy, the film might have been great. Even so, it still would have been far away from a masterpiece. The central story of the girl looking for her lost love through her memory is great, but I didn't feel like I knew her well enough to care either way.
Review of Millennium Actress
