A successful Korean-American man finds himself stuck in Columbus, Indiana, where his estranged architect father is in a coma. The man meets a young woman who plans to stay in Columbus with her mother, a recovering addict, instead of pursuing her own dreams. Together, the two explore the various architectural buildings in Columbus, all the while discovering in each other what they hope to be.
This is one of those instances where I’ve expected too much from a film because of its rave reviews but end up getting oh-so disappointed that getting through the whole 104 minutes of it almost felt like a chore. I mean, it’s not that long so I decided to just get over it while wasting away my time commuting to work.
The whole thing just felt contrived. The dialogues, the very in-your face frame by frame Architectural landmarks which I totally get but felt a bit too much, and the disjointed feel of the whole story. I didn’t see chemistry between Casey (Richardson) and Jin (Cho) and I wasn’t even looking for a romantic chemistry.
To end this, I thought the whole script was just weak or what I will call in books having a thinly veiled plot with very stiff characters. Or maybe Kogonada’s style isn’t just for me.
Director: Kogonada
Cast: John Cho, Haley Lu Richardson, Parker Posey, Rory Culkin, Michelle Forbes
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was released in the United States on August 4, 2017, by the Sundance Institute.
PADDYLAST INC. 