Your Name (2016)

I am drawn to movies about connections between disparate people. Throw in a little mystery, a quest to connect, and you've got a story that will hook me. The anime film Your Name is a lovely little fable which explores the ways we are connected across time and space, across gender and class. Think Sense8 meets The Lake House but done in fairly traditional anime style and you approximate Your Name.

Your Name falls short of perfect. I found there were moments where the film just tells you plot points instead of showing them. The initial experience of the leads switching bodies is shown, but there there is a TV like title sequence which just informs us of their connection and their adjustment to it. It loses its organic feel here. It really did feel like we were watching an episode of an angsty teen drama instead and were getting up to speed on what happened "last week."

Also, the animation oscillates between stunningly beautiful (like something out of a Ghibli film) and cheaply awkward, like television anime. There are times I wanted to just soak in all the amazing visuals and other times I felt short changed.

Still, as an overall package, Your Name succeeds.  There is something undeniably beautiful about the idea of being connected to someone living a very different life. And the passion the film builds to reach that connection, despite the occasional short cuts it takes, is palpable. Your Name is the sort of film which will have you sit with it for a while, reflect on its meanings, and make you dream a bit bigger.

Your Name
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Writer: Makoto Shinkai