Cherry Blossoms (2009)

Slow Bloom: This slow-moving drama will reward those who are willing to forgive its pace

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Nothing moves quickly in German writer-director Doris Dörrie's plaintive drama Cherry Bolssoms. The camera lingers on sunlit trees and scuttling flies. The plot plods. And Rudi (Elmar Wepper), a terminally ill widower living out his late wife's unrealized dream of traveling to Japan, shuffles around the streets of Tokyo in a heavyhearted stupor. But there's a grace to it all, and moments of oddball poetry — like Rudi learning the art of Japanese shadow dancing from a street performer — will reward patient viewers. B