Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 33 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 55 Ratings

  • Starring: Irrfan Khan, Kal Penn, Tabu
  • Summary: Spanning two generations, two clashing cultures and two very different ways of life that crash into each other only to become lovingly intertwined, The Namesake is ultimately about the imminently relevant question: what does it mean to be an American family? (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 33
  2. Negative: 0 out of 33
  1. Brims with intelligence, compassion and sensuous delight in the textures, sights and sounds of life--all the way from the Taj Mahal to Pearl Jam.
  2. Nair takes mostly low-key material about a traditional Indian family raising kids in America and turns it into something sensual, funny and quietly devastating.
  3. Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    80
    A richly compelling story of family and self-discovery.
  4. Reviewed by: Anna Smith
    60
    This Indian immigrant family saga is a pleasant watch, but given the emotive source novel, it’s surprisingly superficial.

See all 33 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 26
  2. Negative: 2 out of 26
  1. ChetR
    9
    Nair is beginning to fulfill her promise by evolving into a major filmmaker in a very specialized niche.
  2. 8
    I've never read the book, but the movie was very good. Well acted and moving. I would suggest not to watch it more than once or twice. 8/10 or 81/100.
  3. FredB.
    7
    A movie that shocked me. I thought it was going to be a waste of my time. But its actually not that bad. No action, but a lot of touching scense.
  4. AndrewK.
    4
    The Namesake would've been a much better film if it didn't try to cover so much territory. I know it's based on a novel, but a novel is a medium that can cover that large a scope. The film started with its focus on Ashoke and Ashima, and then halfway through it switched to focus on their son, Gogol. You can't switch the character you're focused on halfway through a film. Especially to such an uninteresting character. If they were going to focus on Gogol, they should've started with him and shown parts of the parents' story in flashback to help bring understanding to his journey. Ashoke and Ashima were much more interesting characters, and I wish that the film had just been about them. The actors that played their parts were brilliant. Kal Penn, as Gogol, has got to be one of the worst actors I've ever seen. The scenes with his girlfriend (the white one that acts like Kirsten Dunst) were unbearable. They were completely superficial and boring, which I think is somewhat the point, but it didn't come off as realistic. I also resent it when filmmakers think their viewers are so unattentive that they have to be reminded of things that happened earlier in the film by showing us brief clips over again. I disagree with a comment made by Dennis Lim at The LA Times, who said (in a roundabout way) that the film was not didactic. Wrong. We are being constantly reminded of the themes of the film (i.e. Gogol hates his name, etc.) and what it is that we are supposed to be focusing on. There's also a scene in which Gogol is in high school that comes off just like all Hollywood schlock, portraying teenagers in a completely unrealistic way. Gogol is supposed to have graduated in '96, and the other students act like middle eastern people are SOOOO strange. I graduated in '01. I went to school with tons of middle eastern students. Nobody treated them like they were freaks. We got along just like everyone else. Bottom line is this movie is way overrated, lacked focus, had too broad a scoap and was didactic and unrealistic. Which isn't a very good endorsement, is it? Expand

See all 26 User Reviews

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