Film

Gogol Ganguli (Penn) is a walking melting pot—born to Bengali immigrants, bred in Queens and blessed (or cursed) with a famous Russian author’s name. Of course he’s going to be caught in a whirlpool of assimilative confusion! Mira Nair’s take on Jhumpa Lahiri’s popular culture-clash novel, however, doesn’t suffer from an identity crisis. It knows exactly what it is: an adaptation that’s intended to inspire crescendoes of sobs or cheers as Gogol’s groping for self-realization becomes a monumental triumph of the human spirit. And don’t think for a second that the film won’t come on like a bum-rushing Saint Bernard puppy in order to accomplish these goals.

To its credit, The Namesake tackles the Old World–versus–New World conflict with far more grace than its broad, mugging brethren (East Is East, Bend It Like Beckham). Penn throws himself into Gogol’s various personae—Kumar-like stoner, Manhattan yuppie, mildly militant Indian-American—with admirable verve, but his dramatic range needs to extend beyond gritting his teeth and glaring. Better is Irrfan Khan as Gogol’s father, who sums up a lifetime of resignation and disappointment in a single cigarette drag. But Nair’s tendency toward touchy-feeliness too often plays like cheap middlebrow pandering; if Oprah ever started a movie club, the director’s work would top the list. Her inability to resist dropping in cutesy moments, like a faux-Bollywood honeymoon dance, only makes things more cloying, and when the central story gives way to family melodrama and follow-your-bliss remarks, it’s time to prep the insulin shots.