I was on board Make
Way for Tomorrow, an American precursor to the superior Tokyo Story, for roughly half the movie. Then, one of the leads make a decision so stupid that he
lost me, killed my disbelief, and tuned me out. Once that happened, I saw for what it was: a one-note movie
that plays its note on a title card before the story even begins.
Here’s the setup: an older couple (roughly 70, which in the
world of this film is absolutely ancient) calls their adult children home. This is not a happy reunion,
however. They’ve invited them to
announce to that they’ve lost their home and need to move in with somebody. The kids are displeased.
Ok, I know where
this is going and so do you: it’s right there in the title. Besides, you’ve seen King Lear and Tokyo Story (What? You haven’t seen Tokyo Story? Why are
you wasting time reading this blog when you could be doing that? Go on now, shoo. I’ll be here when you’re
finished.). You know how this
works out.
The rest of the film
is, essentially, a slog to the bitter end. But there’s a moment, about halfway through, when a friend
presents the man of the couple an opportunity on a silver platter with a couple
of mints and a lovely flower in a little vase. The man waves away the opportunity because he’s an
idiot. This made me so mad, so
incredulous, that I stopped seeing him as a man and started seeing him as a
cardboard cutout with “pathetic” scrawled upon it in magic marker. I wondered why the “opportunity” scene
was even included. And then I was
done.
Make Way for Tomorrow is technically competent and decently
performed, but it failed to make me believe. What a disappointment.
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