Review of The Namesake (2006) by Shirley H — 15 Apr 2013

2: The Namesake has a plethora of very poignant moments (often revolving around death, birth, marriage, or other similarly life changing events), but it ultimately fails as a film. I'm not sure if this is more Nair's fault, the writer's, the producers, or the actors, but I suspect it's some combination of them all.

The script is just too clunky, awkward, and forced at times. Emotionally forceful scenes like those revolving around the discovery of an affair, a death, a funeral, etc need to flow naturally, but here it often feels like they are smashed together into an unwieldy jigsaw puzzle of sorts.

The concept and trajectory is superb and often fascinating, but this filmmaking team doesn't seem to have the requisite skills to pull it off. This is terribly sad because I can imagine this story working to perfection in the hands of Jean Renoir, Clint Eastwood, Danny Boyle, Martin Scorsese, etc to name a few random directors that relate to the story in my mind for one reason or another.

The story is just too grand and ambitious for its own good. It attempts to follow one family's immigration to the US and the impacts this and a name has on their lives (and everything in between) and it just can't hold itself together.