Movie Review: The Farewell

The Farewell **** / *****

Directed by: Lulu Wang.

Written by: Lulu Wang.

Starring: Awkwafina (Billi), Tzi Ma (Haiyan), Diana Lin (Jian), Shuzhen Zhao (Nai Nai), Gil Perez-Abraham (Tony), Ines Laimins (Kathy), Han Chen (Haohao), Aoi Mizuhara (Aiko), Becca Khalil (Shirley), Yongbo Jiang (Haibin), Hong Lu (Little Nai Nai), X Mayo (Suz). 

 

The Farwell tells its story with such specificity that its message becomes universal. This is a film about a Chinese-American woman, navigating the differences between those two cultures and it never stops to slow down and explain it to the audience unfamiliar with those cultures. That is one of the movies great strengths – it drops you into this world, and it rings so true, so authentic that even those from outside can recognize the truthfulness of the movie – which in turns, is what makes it so moving.

 

The film stars Awkwafina as Billi – a 30-year old aspiring writer in New York, whose career isn’t really going as planned. She has big dreams, but they haven’t come true yet – so she’s living paycheck to paycheck, and doing her laundry at her parents’ home. Then she gets devastating news – her beloved grandma, Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao), living back in China, has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer – and only has a few months to live. To make matters more complicated, the family has decided not to tell Nai Nai about her illness. Why upset her if there is nothing that can be done? What they have done is moved up Billi’s cousins wedding to a Japanese woman so that the ceremony will double as a way to get the extended family – Billi’s living in America, her uncle’s living in Japan – to back from one final visit with Nai Nai. They don’t want to bring Billi along – she is too emotional – she will give the whole thing away – but she goes anyway. Their concern is well-founded – Billi hates that they aren’t telling Nai Nai, and struggles with keeping it a secret – struggles with keeping a happy face on, when she feels immense sadness.

 

The film is – in many ways – a tribute to Grandmas, and that is really what makes it universal. If you are lucky to have a grandmother in her life like Nai Nai – it is impossible to watch The Farewell and not think of yours (particularly, if like me, your grandma died just a couple of months ago). Nai Nai is a life-force – the kind of Grandma who gives you unconditional love and support in a way that only Grandmas can. Billi’s relationship with her parents (Tzi Ma and Diana Lin) is more complicated – more fraught – because of closeness, proximity, and questions about Billi’s childhood – and the decision her parents made. They know each other too well for their relationship not to be complicated.

 

Awkwafina is at the heart of nearly every scene of The Farewell – which makes sense since she is based on writer/director Lulu Wang, who therefore knows precisely how Billi navigates this. It is a complicated performance – funny and emotional at the same time. Apparently, some native Mandarin speakers have noted some inconsistencies in her performance (Awkwafina is not as proficient in Mandarin as Billi is – and spent a lot of time learning not only the words to say, but how to say them to make the emotions come out, but I’ve heard some say that someone with her delivery wouldn’t use some of the words she does here, etc.) – but for someone who doesn’t speak Mandarin at all, the performance works perfectly. She is matched by a terrific ensemble. Tzi Ma, one of those actors who has been in everything, but rarely given this substantial of a role, who does a great job of showing his own complex emotions dealing with his mother’s impending death. Diana Lin is also excellent as a woman with a more complicated relationship with Nai Nai – as we all do with our in-laws – and being someone who doesn’t quite fit in with Chinese’s culture over exuberance in expressing grief. And then there is Shuzhen Zhao as Nai Nai, who is truly great. She takes center stage when everyone comes to visit – she plans everything, is moving around at an exhaustive pace, and shows just how she is loving every single minute of this visit. And then, in the very last shot on Nai Nai in the movie there is a subtle gesture that absolutely breaks your heart – and will likely move you to tears.

 

The Farewell is remarkable in many ways. It never really sets a foot wrong, never collapses into sentimentality – never tries to milk tears from you. It doesn’t resolve things the way we expect – there are no big confrontations about Nai Nai’s illness, or anything else. The family dynamic is perfect – there are passive aggressive comments that threaten to become something bigger, until people walk away just in time as to not cause a scene. Even the smaller characters feel like real people – like their lives will continue after this movie is over. I do think that the very end of the film is strange – and I don’t think I quite get it. It’s like Wang wanted to add an exclamation point on the film that didn’t need it, rather than just let it end naturally. A mistake that small though seems like an odd thing to complain about, in a film this good.