Review of The Farewell (2019) by Kenr — 04 Dec 2022

The Farewell - Brings It All Home (do you tell them or keep it secret?) Spoiler Free.

Writer/director Lulu Wang’s first feature is about as good as it gets for a debut, especially one based on emotional situations involving her family. SheThe Farewell - Brings It All Home (do you tell them or keep it secret?) Spoiler Free.

Writer/director Lulu Wang’s first feature is about as good as it gets for a debut, especially one based on emotional situations involving her family. She captures the divide I suspect many immigrants must experience when settling in a new country and identifying with a new culture. In some ways, it might have been good for her to play herself in the lead. But then, with being a first attempt at feature movie making and a project as personally involving as this, I agree, that would have been a hefty call.

Her cast is marvelous, with each delivering perfect characterizations to the somewhat demanding situations they bring to life. It’s billed as a comedy (I figure mainly for the sales angle) and while there’s a good degree of ironic humor, I seemed to spend more time with watery eyes. Her director of photography, Spanish-born Anna Franquesa Solano delivers highly professional steady images, for what appears to be only her second feature and it's a welcome relief from the clumsy wobble cam so often found in Indi shows. Perhaps it’s a little longish at 1h40m and might have done with less of the slow-mo (although some of this is emotionally strong) Composer Alex Weston provides a thoughtful score and the careful selection of additional accompanying songs is superb, all helping to create a warm feel to proceedings.

It’s to be hoped we see more quality features from this talented young woman, and that she may resist the temptation to throw it away on lowly commercial features – she certainly has proven that independent stories can out-gross even the big budget productions. The DVD features extras and is nicely transferred, although the white subtitles would have benefitted from an added black drop-shadow (and yes, one of the deleted scenes should not have even been considered for the final script, a good decision by whoever made it) Above Average.