Netflix is
generally on the mark with suggestions it thinks I'll like, but
occasionally it misses the mark. So it did with the drama Lilting.
Lilting
is the story of Junn, an old Cambodian Chinese woman in an assisted
living facility in London. Unable to speak English, she is suddenly cut
off from the world by the death of her son, Kai. Unexpectedly, Kai's
roommate Richard reaches out to her, hiring an interpreter to help both
of them communicate and share their grief. Junn doesn't know that her
son was gay, and in a long term relationship with this "roommate."
There's
a lot of raw emotion on display in the film. Junn's loss is conveyed
through lingering camera shots, bittersweet flashbacks, and
introspective dream sequences. Richard's loss is conveyed through more
showy means: flowing tears and intense monologues delivered powerfully
by Ben Whishaw, the one actor in this film you'd most likely recognize.
(He starred in Perfume, and plays Q in Daniel Craig's James Bond
films.) Nothing about what these characters are going through feels
artificial or maudlin.
But
the simple fact is, there just isn't much going on in this story.
Richard has a secret; Junn doesn't know it; when he finally tells her,
that will be it. The movie is only 90 minutes long, and it often feels
strained and stretched just to fill that little time. A subplot
involving Junn and an amorous senior in her home meanders before ending
abruptly. Even the core scenes sometimes feel too long, as characters
wait on translation between languages. (It certainly conveys the lack of
communication and the sense of isolation, but it also certainly makes
for a painfully slow pace.)
I'd
like to say more, but the movie simply doesn't give me much to work
with. Perhaps you could argue that makes it a good metaphor for the
coming out process for many gays and lesbians? (In that until you do it,
it seems like it's going to be a much bigger deal than it turns out to
be.)
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