The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
FIND MOVIES
Find a Movie
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

A slight but sometimes affecting trifle
By PETER KEOUGH  |  October 15, 2008
2.5 2.5 Stars

goodprayersINSIDE.jpg

The relationship between fathers and daughters is complicated enough without being further strained by Mao’s Cultural Revolution. In Wayne Wang’s slight but sometimes affecting trifle, however, family politics trump those of the Revolution. Mr. Shi (Henry O), just off the plane from China, observes the banalities of American suburbia with childlike wonder, taking notes on new words as if he were Roberto Benigni in Down by Law. He’s not so charmed by the plight of his deeply unhappy daughter, Yilan (Yu Feihong; in a WASP version the role would be played by Laura Linney), long repatriated in the United States and a spinsterish academic. Why doesn’t she eat more? Why doesn’t she get married? The reasons lie in the past but have nothing to do with history, and they provide less enjoyment than such simple moments as Mr. Shi chatting with a bikini-clad unemployed morgue assistant and communicating with an Iranian woman with less English than himself. Mandarin + English | 86 minutes | Kendall Square
Related: Review: Absurdistan, Review: Observe and Report, Review: One Day You'll Understand, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Communism, Laura Linney, Roberto Benigni,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS  |  November 24, 2009
    Nicolas Cage is at his best in Bad Lieutenant
  •   REVIEW: THE ROAD  |  November 24, 2009
    John Hillcoat doesn't stray from Cormac McCarthy's Road For those who found the Coen Brothers' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men too lighthearted, John Hillcoat's relentlessly faithful version of the author's post-apocalyptic Pulitzer-winning novel might hit the spot.
  •   INTERVIEW: NICOLAS CAGE  |  November 24, 2009
    "When people like to label any kind of performance as over the top, I suggest that if you were to go to the Guggenheim and look at a Francis Bacon, would you call that over the top?"
  •   REVIEW: FANTASTIC MR. FOX  |  November 25, 2009
    In The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Wes Anderson excelled at telling adult stories with childlike whimsy. Telling children’s stories with adult whimsy is another matter.
  •   SWINE FEVER: AN EVENING WITH HUNTER S. THOMPSON  |  November 24, 2009
    Only Hunter S. Thompson could come up with a line like that; no one else had his knack for the near-Biblical proverb. Few writers outside of Madison Avenue or the New Testament can sum up a zeitgeist so cannily in a phrase.

 See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group