THE NAMESAKE IS A VISUAL, EMOTIONAL AND INTELLECTUALTREAT
From start to finish The Namesake is a visual treat. It is an epic story of an Indian couple who participate in an arranged marriage and eventually come to the United States. They have two children who grow up, have their own loves and losses, spanning 35 years. The scenes shift from living in New York and other american locations to visting and or viewing scenes in various parts of India.
It is seductive to consider this movie an up to date careful look at a modern day Indian couple migrating to Amercia confronting and surmounting the anticipated vicissitudes they do in fact encounter.
However as the movie - approximately 2 hours long - unfolds in a languid ever so unusual slow paced way - the content transcends space, and time transforming into a universal statement with which any and every person can ireadily identify.
It is an authentic love story on multiple levels of interaction. What begins as an arranged marriage culminates in a deeping love between the two central characters. Additionally there is weaved through out overlapping textured love stories between the mother and the son, the father and the son, the son and the sister and so on.
There is an unmistakable sense of a highly sensitive consciousness pervading every moment of this remarkable film. On virtually every level the choices of color, scenery, costuming, location, you name is superlative. There is not one single frame that viloates a perfect integrity to this motion picture.
To be able to convey the progression of thirty five years of history both in breadth and depth in virtually each character and make it seem utterly convincing to me is a consummate expression of true genius.
In an era where dumbing down is the order of the day, where raw inane violence and inauthentic and sensationalized sex is rampant, it is a distinct and rare pleasure to view complex emotions and sophisticated intellect fused in every scene. This film attains the high standard that Yeat's describes as a fusion of "passion and precision.
If forced to choose something that would enhance this film, I would be at a loss to know what this would be.
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