It is no small irony that Luc Besson's “The Lady” hits cinema screens just as Burma appears to be emerging from years of military domination. By its timeliness alone, the Suu Kyi biopic should be able to draw in curious audiences around the world. However, this lackluster movie monumentally fails to capture any semblance of the economic hardship and the brutal civil war that have racked the country for nearly five decades.

Instead, “The Lady” is a a slow-moving melodrama that will have movie-goers nodding off to sleep and none the wiser as to the plight of the ordinary Burmese.

Malaysian-Chinese Michelle Yeoh performs adequately as Aung San Suu Kyi, thanks mostly to her wardrobe and make-up. Her character is charismatic and graceful, but perhaps too gentle, and devoid of Suu Kyi's notorious aloofness. Indeed the cinematic Suu Kyi comes across as weepy and sentimental, and the viewer struggles to see where her moral fiber and inner strength lies.

Perhaps in an attempt to appeal to Western audiences, Besson's adaptation centers on Suu Kyi's relationship with her sons and her husband, Michael Aris, who is played compassionately by English actor David Thewlis. The script skips erratically between Suu Kyi's lakeside villa in Rangoon and England, where streets are cobble-stoned, houses have thatched roofs, and it seems to never stop raining. The plot is scripted as a love story, yet Suu Kyi's relationship with her husband comes across as little more than gentle affection.

This is a poorly edited screenplay which cuts awkwardly between scenes. Even the seasoned Burma observer will struggle to identify which events, which year and even which characters are being portrayed. Played in the mold of a James Bond “baddie,” the nasty psychotic military general, for example, is a cross between Ne Win (“His lucky number is nine,” we are reminded) and Than Shwe. One is frequently left wondering whether a scene is set in 1988 or 2007, especially as Suu Kyi's sons never seem to age over the 20-year period.

Why neither the scriptwriter nor the director saw an opportunity to recreate the crackdown on the student-led demonstrations of 88 or the Saffron Revolution we might never know. All too often Hollywood glamorizes and dramatizes—but this film is sadly understated. Surely someone suggested a scene where Buddhist monks march through the streets of Rangoon in the rain, bowls upturned, humble yet defiant? Would the film even need a melodramatic score to underline the emotive sight of riot police hammering down on the monks and their supporters?

“The Lady” could have been and should have been a blockbuster. Alas it is two-and-a-half hours of cringeworthy dialogue and drawn-out pathos.