Review of The Farewell (2019) by Romethesecondti — 05 Aug 2019

The opening line on the screen is “Based on a lie.” That may be the cleverest writing in “The Farewell,” which has a good idea at its core. But, as many a screenwriter has discovered, it’s what you do with the good idea that counts. There’s some mildly interesting but rather basic family discussions about the difference between Chinese culture and American culture, and Billi emotes about her wrenching move to the United States decades ago. All this is not enough to save this slow-moving, one-note, preachy film. Billi is a mid-20s Asian American (Awkwafina) who left China with her parents at age 6), working as a struggling writer in New York City. Despite her remove from Beijing, she’s close to her grandmother Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao) who still lives there. Billi is devastated when she learns Nai Nai has terminal lung cancer and only a few months to live. The American and Japanese sides of the family decide to travel to China to see Nai Nai one last time, BUT—and here’s the “good idea”—Nai Nai is not to be told she’s dying. To keep the secret, a fake marriage, complete with a lavish wedding banquet, serves as a cover for the onslaught of family members from overseas. Most of the family understands that this is the Chinese way, but apparently Americanized Billi believes Nai Nai should know the truth of her condition.

Where does a scriptwriter go from here? There’s lots of tension to exploit between the keep-the-bad-news-from-her family members (too many to keep track of), and Billi. It’s an advice-prone family, and Billi gets plenty of it. Will she blurt out the truth? Let’s hope not! Nai Nai, too, is adept at the advice game, and Billi gets lots of instruction about career and marriage—and Chinese shouting and exercise--from grandma, whose complete lack of knowledge of New York City and Billi’s life there doesn’t deter her. Of course, Billi loves Nai Nai and the two spend lots of time together, which is about as cloying and boring on screen as it would be in real life. When Nai Nai, convinced that she’s fit as a fiddle, decides to obtain the results of a new chest X-ray, Billi must save the day, sprinting a good mile to the hospital (will she get there in time?).

The fake wedding should provide some comic relief from the pathos and shots of hospital waiting-rooms, but neither a long scene about whether lobster or crab will be served at the banquet, nor another of the groom getting drunk and sick, nor various friends and family doing karaoke advance the story. Billi’s brief speech at the banquet is also unrevealing (except in theory to make us anxious - will she give away the secret?).

To add insult to injury, it’s revealed during the credits that Nai Nai is still alive 6 years later.