? Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) directed this adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel about Bengali immigrants to the United States, with Kal Penn playing their son as an adult. The adaptation is by Sooni Taraporevala, who also scripted Nair’s breakthrough film Salaam Bombay and its follow-up, Mississippi Masala, which was her first to tackle the culture-clash themes explored here.
+ There’s something about the storytelling here that begs to be called beautiful. It’s an appealingly quiet film in which Nair’s camera carefully expresses the feelings of the characters, especially the parents. Snowy rooftops and quiet music stand for the isolation felt by the mother, who does not adapt as readily as her husband to her adopted country. The Namesake doesn’t overplay the culture-clash angle, but instead incorporates that as part of a larger story about a changing family dynamic. Even as the focus shifts to the son’s story, it reminds us that the older generation continues to experience life’s changes even as the new one grows up.
- Undoubtedly some people will find the movie slow, and the plot is by no means earth-shattering.
= ***1/4 This is in some ways an Indian story, but in more significant ways one about assimilation and family life, something like Barry Levinson’s Avalon, but less depressing and less sweeping.
IMDB link
reviewed 4/6/07
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