Critics give Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ new movie mediocre reviews

Maybe Jonathan Rhys Meyers canceled his talk show appearances for Children of Huang Shi because his agent realized how bad the reviews would be. The movie opened on the coasts this weekend and critics had few good words to say. Take a gander:

Entertainment Weekly
Gives the film a D. “A lot of emotions look good on Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ sneery, overripe features, but compassion isn’t one of them. … (The movie is) like Schindler’s List crossed with The Sound of Music, and Roger Spottiswoode directs it in a stiff, lifeless, utterly dated style of international squareness.

The Village Voice
Gives its review the headline: “Epic Bore.” Jonathan Rhys Meyers isn’t terrible as George Hogg, a naive young Brit hungry for adventure who passes himself off as a foreign correspondent just as the Japanese take over Shanghai. He’s just terribly incongruous: a 21st-century Irish heartthrob with hair barely tamped down from its trendy coxcomb, overcooking the Oxbridge accent of an early-20th-century toff who gets in over his head when the Japanese capture him on the road to Nanjing.

The New York Times
Praises the cinematography and location shots in China, but says “it’s difficult to care about Hogg himself, whose personality and motivations remain unplumbed.”

The Los Angeles Times
Agrees that the imagery is gorgeous, but says “it’s a bit of a letdown to see Rhys Meyers, so satisfying as the bad boy elsewhere, go from dumb and impetuous to placid and saintly. He was more fun when he was getting in trouble.”

Poor Jonny. At least he’s still getting excellent reviews on The Tudors as Henry VIII. Can’t wait to see how he’ll torment Anne and woo Jane tonight.