The Farewell will have you at hello... and never let you go

The Farewell walks the thinnest imaginable tightrope between heart-lifting humour and heart-sinking poignancy. And if there’s a more perfect ending to a movie this year, it will be a genuine surprise.

An utterly beautiful movie in a myriad of ways, The Farewell is the embodiment of a small gem to be always treasured.

You would not call it polished, but The Farewell never fails to catch the light. And oh, how it can sparkle when you least expect it. (If there is a more perfect ending to a movie this year, I will be genuinely surprised.)

Walking the thinnest imaginable tightrope between heart-lifting humour and heart-sinking poignancy, the movie tells a true story of an extended Chinese-American family who conspire not to tell their matriarch — a beloved mother, grandmother and mentor to all — that she is soon to die from a terminal disease.

The Farewell never fails to sparkle.

Instead, the clan improvise a wedding from within their ranks, using the occasion to get together and say their last goodbyes by stealth.

To sweet’n’bossy old Nai Nai (an amazing Zhao Shuzhen, who totally owns the screen in her American movie debut at age 75), this is the reunion she’d always wished for. To everyone else, this is the wake they never wanted.

Especially for her favourite granddaughter, a Chinese-born, dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker named Billi (played by Awkwafina, familiar to Australian audiences after breakout roles last year in Crazy Rich Asians and Ocean’s 8).

Billi is the one member of the family who expresses any resistance to the lie being perpetrated on Nai Nai. Though it is explained to her that this is something of a cultural tradition in some circles, smiling away through such a sad charade becomes a weight that Billi finds increasingly hard to carry.

Despite its storyline, The Farewell is not depressing in the slightest.

The performances on display across the largely unknown ensemble cast of The Farewell are uniformly natural, believable and blessed with a combination of warmth and resignation that is genuinely unique.

Further emphasising the gentle miracle unfolding here is the realisation this near-perfect work has been crafted by a first-time filmmaker.

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Lulu Wang knows this story inside out for one very good reason: her own family lived through the same series of well-intentioned untruths some years ago. (A 2016 episode of the This American Life podcast on the Wang family is well worth tracking down after you catch The Farewell.)

This exquisite experience is not depressing in the slightest. Conversely, you will leave in a state of hope and happiness most movies could never hope to inspire.

THE FAREWELL (PG)

Director: Lulu Wang (feature debut)

Starring: Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin.

Rating: ****1/2

It will have you at ‘hello’ ... and never let you go