[I WISH
screens Friday July 20th at 9:25 pm and Saturday July 21st at 7:10
pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]
Review
by Bob Ignizio
As the Rolling Stones sang, you can't
always get what you want. But if you try, sometimes you get what you
need. That's the lesson the kids in I WISH
learn when they embark on a journey to ask the gods of public
transportation for miracles, believing that at the moment when the
two lines of the new bullet train cross paths, wishes will be
granted. One wants to marry his teacher, another seeks success in her
acting career, and one just wants his recently deceased pet to live
again. Koichi (Koki Maeda), the instigator of this quest, wants the
volcano that watches ominously over his home town to erupt. He
figures that way, he and his mother will be forced to move back to
the city where his younger brother Ryunosuke (Oshiro Maeda, Koki's
real life brother) lives with their irresponsible musician father,
thus reuniting the family.
The
young actors here all give excellent unaffected performances, cute
and likable for the most part, but never cloyingly sweet. Kids may be
innocent, but writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda knows they can also be
unaware or uncaring as to the potential ramifications of their
actions and desires. As the characters reach the end of their
journey, it's no so much about whether their wishes will be granted,
but whether they will gain the insight and maturity necessary to move
forward into adulthood. The adult performers do fine work as well,
but they rightly remain in the background for most of the film,
sometimes helping the kids, sometimes hindering, but never taking the
spotlight away from them.
I WISH
is low key film with a relatively minimal plot. It moves at a
leisurely pace, at times meandering down seemingly irrelevant side
roads or flat out stopping to linger on an arresting visual or
emotional beat. Taking the scenic route allows one to notice things
that would just go whizzing by at bullet train speeds, but there are
times when Koreeda goes wandering longer and farther afield than he
perhaps should. Regardless, it's a fine film, and there are less
pleasant detours one could take. 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
As published on Examiner.com
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