The Farewell

4.5 stars

You’d be forgiven for not having heard the name Lulu Wang before Sundance 2019, but after making a big splash this year with The Farewell, her name should be at the top of directors we can be sure to expect more of in the future.

Based on Wang’s own experience, The Farewell follows Billi (Awkwafina), an aspiring American-Chinese writer who returns to China after being informed her family have received a terminal diagnosis for her grandmother (Zhao Shuzhen), yet are collectively withholding this information from her. Under the guise of a fabricated wedding between Billi’s cousin and his fiancé, the whole family unites in Changchun to spend some final time with Nai-Nai as a family.

Depending on who you ask, family gatherings can either be a hellish or a joyous occasion, yet for this expertly written story Wang has managed to weave in both scenarios, creating a beautifully bittersweet film in the process.

At the helm of this ensemble is Awkwafina, who’s character Billi, seems to be caught in a cultural tug-of-war between Eastern vs Western culture. Raised in America, the dissonance in her ‘western views’ compared to her Eastern heritage provides an emotional minefield for her to walk through, as she struggles to connect her childhood memories to the everchanging landscape around her. The family all see her as the successful product of American life, yet early in the film we see she’s struggling financially and is unsuccessful in her writing career (which she chooses to keep hidden). This burden of expectation and hidden self is a common theme throughout all the main characters in the film. Each character is hiding a huge piece of information from the matriarch of the family and this leads each character to play a fictitious version of themselves. This is heavily visualised through the brilliant cinematography of Anna Franquesa Solano, who expertly frames each scene to give a very intimate and accessible feel to the picture. The isolated shots of characters as a juxtaposition against many of the wider-angle shots involving the whole ensemble emphasise the disconnected family, who can at times feel like a group of strangers. The colours used in the film, from wedding photos to the streets of Changchun, all seem to be so fitting of the moment used. Neither extravagant nor forced, they give a feeling that is very intimate, making it more immersive and down to earth; this is not a film that tries too hard to be attractive yet in doing so becomes very visually pleasing.

However, I don’t want you going away thinking this is exclusively a heart wrenching film; due to the brilliantly written script and the absurd impromptu wedding that’s being thrown, there is an overarching comedic theme. There’s this one bit of information that we all know, this little secret that the audience is in on, yet Nai-Nai is unaware. The whole crazy scenario makes for some brilliant moments, with Zhao Shuzhen delivering some real zingers throughout. The fact that it also plays as a comedy is testament to the brilliant writing and direction of Wang, to have a comedy under the pretence that someone is dying, whilst also making it heartfelt and real is no easy task, yet it is done so effortlessly here.

Finally, it would be an injustice not to mention the brilliant job done by Awkwafina. Before The Farewell we’ve seen her in Oceans 8 and Crazy Rich Asians, where she’s been known mainly for her comedic chops, and not to mention her rapping. However, here we see a totally different side to her in Billi, where she expertly tugs and pulls at our emotions bringing so many elements to the character. Billi is at a slump in her life, she’s finished college, but she’s not started her ‘proper’ life yet; this is embodied quite literally through Awkwafina in a rounded shoulders posture adopted by her throughout a lot of the film. In the opening shot we see Billi speaking in Mandarin and then effortlessly switching to an American accent to talk in the most casual of manners. This sliding in and out of different personas is where Awkwafina excels in drawing the audience in and making her so accessible; we can see her keeping the ‘act’ for her Nai-Nai, but then slipping out of it when alone or speaking English. Because we’re able to see the ‘real’ Billi it makes her so much more relatable and believable as a character. Hopefully this can be a launch-pad for Awkwafina to begin taking on more serious dramatic roles as we’ve seen she clearly has a talent for it.

To bring it back to the picture as a whole, by combining intricate and delicate writing with an outstanding ensemble cast, Wang has created a beautiful film that stands to bring a stark perspective on American vs Chinese culture.