Chicago director Rob Marshall's pretty but empty (or pretty empty) film has all the elements of an Oscar? contender: solid adaptation (from Arthur Golden's bestseller); beautiful locale; good acting; lush cinematography. But there's something missing at the heart; which leaves the viewer sucked in; then left completely detached from what's going on.

It's hard to find fault with the fascinating story; which traces a young girl's determination to free herself from the imprisonment of scullery maid to geisha; then from the imprisonment of geisha to a woman allowed to love. Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo); a young girl with curious blue eyes; is sold to a geisha house and doomed to pay off her debt as a cleaning girl until a stranger named The Chairman (Ken Watanabe) shows her kindness. She is inspired to work hard and become a geisha in order to be near the Chairman; with whom she has fallen in love. An experienced geisha (Michelle Yeoh) chooses to adopt her as an apprentice and to use as a pawn against her rival; the wicked; legendary Hatsumomo (Gong Li). Chiyo (played as an older woman by Ziyi Zhang); now renamed Sayuri; becomes the talk of the town; but as her path crosses again and again with the Chairman's; she finds the closer she gets to him the further away he seems. Her newfound "freedom" turns out to be trapping; as men are allowed to bid on everything from her time to her virginity.

Some controversy swirled around casting Chinese actresses in the three main Japanese roles; but Zhang; Yeoh and Gong in particular ably prove they're the best for the part. It's admirable that all the actors attempted to speak Japanese-accented English; but some of the dialogue will still prove difficult to understand; perhaps it contributes to some of the emotion feeling stilted. Geisha has all the ingredients of a sweeping; heartbreaking epic and follows the recipe to a T; but in the end it's all dressed up with no place to go.--Ellen A. Kim