Based on Joseph Conrad’s novel Almayer’s Folly, this $5 million epic by Malaysia’s most revered filmmaker U-Wei Bin Haji Saari is not an easy watch. Bogged down mainly by a half-baked love story, this potentially monumental film is a minor disappointment for fans who were previously moved by his more subversive and braver films. While much care and attention has been put into Hanyut’s beautiful set design and cinematography (the latter by Poland’s Arkadiusz Tomiak, who captures each scene with a painterly quality), the rest of the film is unmoving.

Hanyut (which translates to “Adrift”) opens impressively enough with Almayer (Peter O’Brien), a Dutch trader in colonial Malaysia who decides to send his 10-year-old daughter Nina (Diana Danielle) on a slow boat to Singapore for a Western education. Nina’s near hysterical mother Mem (Sofia Jane) tries to stop the send-off by jumping into the river, but Almayer pulls her away from certain death.

Cut to 10 years later, and Nina returns as a beautiful young woman who is struggling with her identity. While Mem wants her to maintain her Malay roots, Almayer insists that Nina is European and plans to take her back to the Netherlands to restart their lives with the help of Malay prince and trader Dain Maroola (Ady Putra). Almayer decides to manipulate Dain who will provide the money and transportation needed for the ride home, but the blossoming love between Nina and Dain threatens the whole sojourn and deception.

While the film’s flat narrative and storyline threaten to sink this whole endeavour, commendable performances by O’Brien and Jane, and the film’s sheer size, will entrance. If Haji Saari had chosen to develop the characters without getting too caught up with overly ambitious subplots involving the various Sultans, British colonialists and Arab traders, Hanyut would have not have been spread so thinly.

Hanyut is the opening film of the Southeast Asian Film Festival. March 22, 7:30pm.