The Quiet American

4/5 stars

As Andrew pointed out, there are no real likable characters in this. I can see that someone might take pity on Phuong, but I had trouble feeling too much sympathy. Brendan Fraser plays a young American, Alden Pyle, new to Saigon during the war in 1952. He seems to be an idealistic aid worker. He becomes friends with a London Times correspondent, Thomas Fowler, played by Michael Caine. Fowler has a Vietnamese lover, Phuong, whom he can’t marry because his wife, in London, will not allow it (due to her religion). Pyle and Caine end up vying for her love in the backdrop of the politics of Vietnam.