Lust, Caution

Too much caution and too little lust squeeze much of the dramatic juice out of Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution," a two-and-a-half-hour period drama that's a long haul for relatively few returns. Adapted from a short story by the late Eileen Chang, the tale of a patriotic student — who's willing bait in a plot to assassinate a high-up Chinese collaborator in Japanese-held WWII Shanghai — is an immaculately played but largely bloodless melodrama that takes an hour-and-a-half to even start revving up its motor. ... More on Variety.com

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