This impressive
and spirited adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's novel follows
two generations of a Bengali family in the US. Irfan Khan
and Tabu are the newlyweds who move from Calcutta to New
York and have two children who grow into Kal Penn's all-American
slacker, Gogol, and his sister Sonia (Sahira Nair). Highly
entertaining, despite a feeling that too much of the book
is being crammed in.
Zhang Yimou is staging the Beijng Olympics ceremonials this
summer, and this sumptuous movie, part martial arts epic,
part flower festival, looks like a dress rehearsal. It stars
the ever-reliable Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li as emperor and
empress in 10th-century China: he's trying to poison her
in a tale of court skulduggery, awesome night-time battles,
and many, many, chrysanthemums.
"You're nobody in America unless you're on TV,"
says Nicole Kidman's Suzanne Stone Maretto, a smalltown
weathergirl determined to make it in the media world - she's
even prepared (for others) to die for her ambition in this
acute early movie from Van Sant. Superbly scripted by Buck
Henry, this is satire black with clouds gathering over the
American Dream. |
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