This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Nick J’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
Film Club Secret Cinema, Pick by Tim Curry
I put this film off for so long because it sounds like the kind of stuff that gives you a deep cut, and now that I actually saw it, I can confirm that I am hurting. That awkward feeling where your eyes feel like their gonna burst into tears but hold back, that tightness in your chest, unable to release it. The emotional wringer, man.
"Your Name's" plot is a mash-up of "Groundhog Day," "Freaky Friday," and a pinch of "Akira" to tell a unique and visceral love story. Well, maybe love story isn't quite the right word, it feels a lot deeper than just love. Belonging? Realization? Purpose? Appreciation? I'm not quite sure but our protagonists Taki and Mitsuha find something deeper in their unlikely circumstances of switching bodies for a day at a time and having to clean up the mess after. Like a good 80's movie, the bizarre premise is explored and fleshed out, and luckily we have two likable protagonists to share the journey with. The film starts to kick it into high gear once Mitsuha lands a date for Taki with his crush Okudera, and we start to see the cracks in the armor form, that they're starting to feel something deeper for each other despite not knowing each other. And then shit hits the fan when Sephiroth attacks Itomori with Supernova, I mean, a comet breaks into pieces to destroy Itomori like some cruel punishment from the universe for bending the laws of fate and nature. It becomes a desperate search for Taki for something he's about to lose and a race against the clock to save the people of Itomori from their fate. It's almost hard to tell what's more terrifying: Taki literally losing Mitsuha from the meteor strike or Taki losing his memories of her. That cruel sensation of waking from a dream to forget it in an instant and the sadness that comes from not being fast enough to write it down. The inability to appreciate the people who mean the most to you in the moment. And then multiply that feeling tenfold with the beautiful art direction and animation that draws another vial of emotion from you. It's so terrifyingly beautiful and so depressingly happy. Lie down, try not to cry, cry a lot when that trope of them finally coming together at the end actually works on you for once.
