'Namesake' among `07's best

by Terry Lawson

Detroit Free Press (MCT)

27 November 2007

When you consider the usual three-month theater-to-DVD release pattern, “The Namesake” and “The Waitress” - which opened in March and May respectively - are overdue. Both were delayed until this week for the same reason: Their distributors are hoping the DVD buzz will keep them in contention for Oscars, Golden Globes and other awards, including ones being bestowed this year by the newly formed Detroit Film Critic’s Society.

“The Namesake” (4 stars, Fox, $27.98) certainly deserves to be in contention - and it’s on my short list of the year’s best pictures. An excellent and faithful adaptation of the Jhumpa Lahiri novel from director Mira Nair, “The Namesake” is a story of assimilation centering on Gogol Ganguli (Kal Penn), the American-born son of Indian immigrant Ashoke (Irfan Khan). The boy was named after his father’s favorite Russian author, whom the father associates with good luck: He was reading Gogol as a young man when the train he was aboard derailed and he was one of the few survivors.

After moving to the United States, he journeyed back to India to marry the beautiful Ashima (Bollywood movie star Tabu), who has a difficult time adjusting to a lonely life in New York. The two are tested by their attempts to hold on to traditional Indian family values in light of Gogol’s thorough Americanization.

“Waitress” (3 stars, Fox, $29.99) was supposed to be the breakthrough indie film of the year, but it wasn’t. Perhaps that’s because it’s a feel-good movie with some feel-bad overtones. Keri Russell, a waitress and ingenious pie concocter in a small Southern town, has a problem - actually two: She’s pregnant by her abusive husband (Jeremy Sisto), and she’s in love with her married obstetrician (Nathan Fillion of “Serenity").

Like a lot of Southern waitresses, this film tries a little too hard to please, but it’s hard to dislike, especially when you figure in that Adrienne Shelly, who directed the film and plays one of Russell’s co-workers, was murdered before the film’s release.

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Also new this week:

When a restored and remastered print of “I Am Cuba,” Russian director Mikhail Kalatozov’s poetic fantasia of a documentary, was screened at the Detroit Film Theatre a couple of seasons ago, even patrons who had seen it before walked away dazzled. The experience can now be shared by everyone via the new “I Am Cuba: The Ultimate Edition” (4 stars, Milestone, $44.95), which contains three discs in cigar box-like packaging.

The movie, commissioned as a propaganda travel brochure of socialist unity, is an intertwined four-part excursion into the heart of what was then a continuing revolution, with revelations personal and purely cinematic. Extras include an interview with Martin Scorsese, who was instrumental in getting the film restored and rereleased.

The second disc contains Vicente Ferraz’s fascinating “Siberian Mammoth,” a full-length documentary on how the film was made along with an interview with screenwriter Yevgeni Yevtushenko, while the third is given to a new two-hour documentary about filmmaker Kalatozov.

“Drunken Angel” (4 stars, Criterion Collection, $39.95) is one of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s greatest films. It’s a look at postwar Japan that examines the relationship of an alcoholic doctor (Takashi Shimura) and a gangster (Toshiro Mifune) who is discovered to have tuberculosis while he’s being treated for a bullet wound.

“Drunken Angel” was released in Japan in 1948, but wasn’t seen here until 1959. It has been given a high-definition transfer and improved subtitles. It includes a 30-minute documentary about the movie, along with the 25-minute “Kurosawa and the Censors,” about his battle to get the film made and shown despite the government’s disapproval.

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TV on DVD:

The enormous and comprehensive boxes are pouring in, and this week’s pick is “The O.C. - The Complete Series Collection” (Warner, $179.99, look for discounts in the $120 range). The 28-disc set contains all 98 episodes of creator Josh Schwartz’s smart update of the trouble-in-teen-paradise drama, which also paid attention to the adults paying the bills for wrecked cars and wrecked lives.

Also new this week:

“Laverne & Shirley - The Third Season” (Paramount, $38.99) and “The Third Season: Happy Days” (Paramount, $38.99), the sitcom that spawned it.

“Mork and Mindy - The Third Season” (Paramount, $39.99). Come to think of it, “Mork” was spun off from “Happy Days” as well.

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Family pick of the week:

Mr. Bean, the mumbly British buffoon created and played by English comic Rowan Atkinson on British TV, is an acquired taste, but kids warm up to him immediately. Maybe that’s why he has been seen more widely in the United States in his animated approximation than in the flesh. His second feature film, “Mr. Bean’s Holiday” (3 stars, Universal, $29.98), which finds Bean winning a trip to France that he naturally makes a bungle of, proves he is best appreciated in the flesh. Atkinson twists his face in endless ways to express his inability to cope with life. The movie is a tribute to “M. Hulot’s Holiday,” starring another great movie clown, but I won’t tell the kids if you don’t.

Also child-friendly and out this week:

“The Land Before Time: The Wisdom of Friends” (Universal, $19.98), another adventure in pre history.

“Return to Neverland” (Disney, $29.99), a Peter Pan sequel that had a brief theatrical run before finding its way to DVD.