A review by Brooks Rich
Sometimes I don't know what to say about a film or how to even review it. On a technical level there is nothing wrong with the movie The Farewell. The script is well written and the characters all feel real. The comedy works and the heartfelt moments ring true. This is a beautiful film and an interesting look at a family.
Awkwafina plays Billi, a young woman of Chinese descent struggling to make ends meet in New York. She is a writer who has just been denied a Guggenheim Fellowship. She finds out that her grandmother is terminally ill and the extended family are going back to China to spend some time with her. They do not plan on telling the grandmother about the diagnosis. Despite her family's wishes, Billy goes to China to see her grandmother.
Let me just say the grandmother is one of the best characters in any film this year. She is played by Shuzhen Zhao, a woman who has never acted before. She does an incredible job and I would not be surprised to see her get a best supporting actress nomination next awards season. All the acting in this film is great. These feel like real people, not characters in a movie. I honestly don't know who Awkwafina is, I saw her host SNL and thought she was very funny, but she is very good as Billi and makes her the most relatable character in the film, almost making her the film's avatar for the audience.
Yes, I do think this is one of the best movies of the year. It’s not my top film, but it is definitely one of the best I've seen. But, something seems off, or wrong, to me at points. That's what I've been struggling with since I've seen it. Some of the characters are pretty nasty to Billi and I don't think they are redeemed as much as the film thinks they are. However, this criticism is a minor complaint because the film does feel so real.
The film is in both English and Mandarin. It shows the contrast between living in the United States and living in China. It shows the cultural differences in how we treat certain things, especially our handling of death and grief. As Billi points out during an argument with her family, they legally couldn't do this to the grandmother in America.
I love that this film does not say one way or the other if China or America is better. The film only says that they're both very different from one another. It lets the audience observe life in both and come up with its own decision. It never says if Billi is right for wanting to tell her grandmother or if the family is right for lying to her.
I do recommend this film. This is a great movie. It might not be the masterpiece everyone else is calling it, but it is one of the must-see films of 2019. In the age of superheroes and space operas, sometimes we just need a quiet film like this. There's nothing wrong with that.
Rating: 4.5/5
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