Mira Nair turns Jhumpa Lahiri's gentle, evocative novel The Namesake, into a gentle, evocative film.

| Jun 19, 2019

There are bound to be quibbles about whether they get their Bengali right or whether Nair captures the culture and ethos. But it still can't take much away from this humane, warm and elegantly crafted film.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 24, 2019

The Namesake captures the interior struggle between centuries of history and the appeal of living only in the now, and it's grippingly beautiful and overwhelmingly moving.

| Aug 23, 2018

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 16, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 16, 2011

What holds it together are the subtle loving performances by Tabu and Khan, both Bollywoood stars. They never overplay, never spell out what can be said in a glance or a shrug, communicate great passion very quietly.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 7, 2007

It is a saga told in small pieces, a patchwork of short scenes that tumble after each other almost apologetically, as if they would love to linger a little longer, but there is too much to tell and only so much time in which to do it.

| Apr 22, 2007

This poignant tale resonates wherever you are placed in the world.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 3, 2007

There were many moments when I found myself wanting to refer to the book to find out what really happened.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2007

The Namesake delivers such a tactile presence that it's difficult not to leave feeling as if you've just struggled through a New York winter, attended an Indian wedding, and returned from a Calcutta holiday.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 30, 2007

Intelligent and insightful, The Namesake celebrates family in a unique way.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Mar 29, 2007

If it remains engaging for most of its two-hour running time, it's largely thanks to the casting.

Full Review | Mar 27, 2007

This Indian immigrant family saga is a pleasant watch, but given the emotive source novel, it's surprisingly superficial.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 27, 2007

This is a wonderful movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 24, 2007

There's more love and heart in The Namesake than in many Hollywood dramas. I just wish the filmmakers had spread it around. Cross-cultural understanding should be a two-way street.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 23, 2007

The Namesake is three-fourths of a fine film. Which is, of course, far better than most.

| Original Score: B- | Mar 23, 2007

Mira Nair has made one of the best movies about the immigrant American experience ever. And even if you know nothing about India and its customs, The Namesake is not a movie you have to get into.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 23, 2007

Deserves credit for its graceful attempt to tell an all-American story with warm, unromanticized characters trying to discover who they are in a land too eager to impose its own definition on them.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Mar 17, 2007

The Namesake has a deep, alluvial poetry to it, like a mighty river reaching the sea. It's mysterious and ordinary, insightful and banal, rambling and precise, and it is altogether unexpected.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 16, 2007

[Director] Nair and screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala bring the novel's velvety heart to the screen. The film glides smoothly over the years, touching down to give us the vignettes that make up a life.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 16, 2007