"The Stunt Woman" is far from a perfect film - it is quite slow and meandering - but it gives Michelle Yeoh the chance to show her stuff in an atypical dramatic role: instead of playing an aggressive, super-confident superwoman, she is just a simple, easygoing, unassuming, brave woman trying to earn her living by doing what she's best at, doubling actors for dangerous movie stunts. Her mature, restrained performance is pretty much the whole show here - and she looks great, too. The film is absorbing most of the way, but I have to be honest here: when Sammo Hung's character (an action director) advises an aspiring screenwriter to "liven up" his romantic tragedy with a few fight scenes, I thought that this film itself might have benefited from a similar approach. OK, it was obviously designed as a change-of-pace for its stars, but it still seems kind of wasteful to have Michelle, Sammo and Ken Lo in your movie and have a total of about 3 short fight scenes in it. (**1/2)
