Farewell, My Funny
Farewell, My Funny
Hugs and Lies
February 24, 2020
Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me...
The Farewell (2019)
If you were dying, would you want to know?
And if you were very old and had a lot of health problems and everyone was being really, really nice to you, wouldn't you suspect something?
Those questions structure the plot of The Farewell, a very touching, and piercingly funny movie about family, love, food, China, traditions and the discussion over whether sheltering someone from pain is selfish or selfless.
Awkwafina (whose real name is Nora Lum) plays Billi, a young Chinese-American woman living in New York whose parents tell her that her beloved grandmother, her father's mother, is dying. But instead of telling the grandmother her fate the family holds a wedding for one of her grandsons as an excuse for all of them to travel back to China to spend a few final, precious days with her.
And, as they say, hilarity ensues.
This film swims in humor and feeling as Billi and her family navigate the fragile ground of keeping with family and cultural norms while also balancing modern views about individual freedom.
You want funny? There is a scene in which the family gathers at a gravesite and, in keeping with tradition, offers gifts to the departed including cigarettes. One family member says "but he quit smoking!"
Trust us, it's much funnier when they do it.
Lulu Wang wrote and directed this absurd little gem of a flick which, other than Awkwafina, has an ensemble cast of performers who are all new to at least one viewer which helped make the whole thing all the more authentic.
No one wants to let go. No one wants to say goodbye. And we'll leave it to others to decide what the best way to do those things is. But we do confidently write that no matter how you grieve, or how you live, or how you prepare to die, it's probably done better when you're laughing.
And when Awkwafina - with her raspy voice and droll smirk - is with you the whole way. --TK
Wednesday, February 26, 2020