Dreadfully Boring

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is family "coming to the US" story spanning two generations; the 1st coming from what was once considered an "exotic" locale (i.e. India). Unfortunately, in focusing on the lives of both the father's generation AND the son's, the film runs way too long, with scenes that really don't add much to the plot line; an example being the family trip to India...which is superfluous since we've already seen it as a backdrop in the first part of the movie. While the film does have a couple of excellent performances (Zuleikha Robinson proves again that she is as sultry as she is versatile), overall it is very slow moving and self-indulgent. Like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" it uses (see: overdoes) the kitsch/formula of a culture that's not quite like the rest of what middle-America may be used to over and over (i.e. "we're Indian/Greek/Italian/Rastafarian/Scientologist...so we have to do things this way") but in the end succeeds in showing us just how much we really are alike.

I have a request to Mira Nair.. please study Bengali psyche before you attempt to make such a movie. this movie is nothing but a masala mix of incidents with no concrete framework. Just by mixing scenes from Kolkata and USA does not give any impact to educated audience or global value. The editing is horrible. I am surprised by this kind of sloppy work from her specially after watching salam bombay and mississippi masala where she could prove that she knows how to make a movie. Sad to say this is a complete waste of money talent and time. The whole namesake theme was so cheap that it will wonder anyone with maturity that why the heck she went to make a movie about this.

This movie was good, but could have been a lot better. Although well-acted, I don't think the actors reached their full potential in this film adaption of Jhumpa Lahiri's novel. The pace of the movie was a bit slow, with the train wreck providing the only action. Also, Gogol's love life was treated as filler material, conveniently placed between moments of cultural unease with his family. There was no real sense of longing or searching on Gogol's part. In portraying his love affairs, the film did not do the novel justice--instead of using them as opportunities to convey Gogol's search for cultural identity, the film treats these affairs as soap opera material (cue the electric guitar, he's breaking up with her). I would have liked more emphasis on culture than on Gogol's love life. That aside, this movie is well-acted and there are plenty of touching scenes. Possibly the most emotionally-charged scene is when a young Gogol and his father stand on a cliff overlooking the ocean, talking about the journey they've made "to a place where there's nowhere left to go." The symbolism in these words--describing immigration to America--is compelling. Emotionally-charged scenes like this are what make The Namesake worth the watch.bitesizemoviereview.blogspot.com

The story of an immigrant couple and dilemma of the second generation immigrants are well portrayed in the film in general sense. What makes the movie good is its universal language. You can replace Indian immigrants with Chinese, Turks, Romanian, Arabs or others, you can replace the US with England, Australia or else. The story's main lines won't change. An eye-catching characteristics of the movie is its little warm and memorable moments. Especially during the first quarter of the movie, while two main characters, Ashima and Ashoke introduced. This is a plus for movies itself, but little bit arguable for the story. They are like warm touches to a sensitive issue. It makes you feel sympathy for the characters (and immigrants) and wants you to take a side in the issue, while the story never touches to the other side of the coin such as adaptation and cultural problems of immigrants or conservative structure of their lives. The story focuses on a most typical issue on immigrants dilemma in the living countries; Their names: their identities. Which gives a clue from which culture, from which religion you are coming from. Something that sometimes you are proud of and something that sometimes you wish /have to change. Self-criticism is missing in the movie. However, the movie doesn't claim that it is discussing the immigrant issue as a whole. Based on personal experience of an Indian immigrant in the States. So we can forgive that flaw. The movies have the audience's attention easily, flows smoothly. A big plus for the film is it's reaching to its target without any difficulty; the western societies, which continuously welcome ten thousands of immigrant from every corner of the world. So it gives us an extra idea to understand immigrants better, who are clamped, stuck and lost between two lives, two cultures. Sometimes the film repeats its gender's clichés (shrinking clothing washed by Ashima; Ashima's saying she had been missing India for years, then now she would miss The US, etc) but we also see some original approaches like Ashima's memorable quote "Do you want me say 'I love you' like Americans." As for the cinematic structure of the film, personally I don't think that transition in Gogol's personality/life looks very well real. It seems to be little bit rushed. This is not actor's fault anyway. Other than this, Kal Penn's performance is strong. I find her wife's performance little bit overacted. Although we have seen Alex's parents very briefly, we have a good idea about their life style. On the other side, Gogol's parents life could be digged little bit more. The movie's music, cinematography and general atmosphere don't take any risk and follow the film grammar closely. We don't see any cinematic essay, original tricks, surprising editing or else (that's why the movie losses 2 point in my opinion) but we see a smooth, easily-read, nicely done movie. (that's why the movie gets 8 points)Overall: 8 over 10.January 2009, Montreal