The Farewell, written and directed by Lulu Wang - Eight out of 10

The Farewell, written and directed by Lulu Wang

Eight out of 10

The Farewell is not just critically acclaimed, with an astounding, if perhaps exaggerated average Metascore of 89, nominated for two Golden Globes, one for Best Motion Picture and the other for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for Awkwafina – that’s right, she only uses one name, maybe because she is so amusing or she thinks she is on the same level with Madonna and the rest of one-name celebrities.

However, although this film has also won the Movie of the Year at the American Film Institute Awards –and others to boot – for this cinephile, this was interesting, with merits, but in no way equal to say The Current War and furthermore, to put ever more emphasis on how flawed the undersigned is, the nominated, appreciated Awkwafina is, if not the main, at least one of the most important reasons why the comedy flopped for this viewer, with her exaggerated, artificial and inadequate accents on various emotions highlighted in the movie that seems so déjà vu, sugary and easy to anticipate with clichés at every corner…

Having gone over the top with his silly dismissal, this viewer must say that the feature is spot on so many aspects, such as the exposition of differences between the East and the West – for a more comprehensive, if not the ultimate analysis on this subject, you could do no better than read Words at War: The 2,500 –Year Struggle Between East and West by the magnificent Anthony Pagden or at least the short note you find here: http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/07/words-at-war-2500-year-struggle-between.html or the magnum opus Why the West Rules for Now by the glorious Ian Morris http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/07/words-at-war-2500-year-struggle-between.html

The latter has one splendid joke, among so many fantastic tales, anecdotes, predictions about the future, extraordinary details – the fact that the Chinese, when they had a navy that would put Columbus and the West to such shame, decided to stop navigating the high seas, otherwise, the explorers would have found Chinese welcoming them in Central and south America…but here’s the joke, which explains so well what happened in Soviet Union, in our parts, where they brought the ‘benefits ‘of communism, which we still enjoy, after so many years after its demise and in Britain and elsewhere, were the proselytes of the Corbyn type to win elections:

Three Russian presidents, actually called General Secretaries, are taking the train and this stops in its tracks…

                - Take the train mechanic and flog him, says Stalin, only to discover that they are still stuck on the train

                - Rehabilitate and re instate the mechanic, decrees Nikita Khrushchev, but without any positive effect…

                - You know what, let’s just pretend the train is moving, concludes the third…

In The Farewell, Billi aka awkward Awkwafina speaks with her father and an uncle and one of them insists on the differences: in the East, one belongs to the community, to the family and indeed, this is what the major books aforementioned and surely so many others insist on, while in America, in the West in general, they insist on individuality, the right of everyone to act, do according to his own desires and taking less, if any, consideration of what the good of others would require.

Hence, the family that takes its Farewell from Nai Nai – Shushen Zhao, who acts in this role would have been a more legitimate nomination for this viewer – is scheduling a wedding to part with the honored grandmother, who has been diagnosed with a terminal disease, but hide it from her – which would be illegal in America, as Billi, who lives and studies there, points out – just as she had done for her husband, until the last stage of his disease set in.

There is humor and we can admire especially Nai Nai and her old friend as they at times engage in some outré – for the West – physical exercises and when the matriarch conducts the ceremony at the grave of her departed husband, telling the others to bow three times, say one thing and other three or maybe four times…

Thus, the motion picture is educational, perhaps inspiring for those who have written so admiringly about it and listed it with the best of the year – and indeed, this could be equal in value, or lack thereof, to Once Upon time in Hollywood, Knives Out and even the glorified Marriage Story, in the book of this cinephile – but not for the undersigned, but this might just be a reason to say mea culpa…if one does not get it, it does not mean that the feature is bad, ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’