Delayed Reaction: Your Name

The Pitch: The Lake House mixed with some Freaky Friday as an anime movie.

A high school girl and boy from different parts of Japan swap bodies on random days.

I am not a big anime fan. I had a Dragon Ball Z phase in middle/high school and that's about it. The Miyazaki movies have never connected with my the way they do with other people. It's just not a style of animation I connect with. I don't have a good reason for this. It really is a matter of personal taste. I like the idea of being a fan of the top tier stuff though. I'm in the infancy of my appreciation of World cinema, and anime seems key to a good diet.

Your Name had just the right mix of critical buzz, massive box office success (internationally), and intriguing premise that I decided to check it out. Overall, I get the appeal. I liked this a lot. More than I expected even. It is certainly a case of the highs being so good that I could ignore the lows though, not a balanced film that's executed well beginning to end.

Taki and Mitsuha are likable enough leads. The most interesting thing about them is their link to each other. This movie reminded me a lot of In Your Eyes, except, you know, this was actually good. The first half of the movie is pretty uninspired. You could feel the filmmakers' impatience establishing all the body swapping stuff. That part alone could fill out an entire enjoyable movie. It's so rushed though, that when the movie starts suggesting that Taki and Mitsuha were falling for each other, I didn't buy it. The movie fails at selling that in the first half.

Once the movie moves into the second half with the discovery about the comet though, I was hooked. I don't get all the time-travel wonkiness, but that hardly matters. It turns into this weird out-of-time race for time. The way that Taki and Mitsuha move in and out of each others' lives (and bodies) is handled superbly. There are touches of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with the memory wiping that pulled on my heartstrings. The end also has bits of Serendipity to it with the way they circle each other's lives. If I can just pretend that the first half of the movie earns what the second half pays off, then this is an excellent movie.

Supposedly, JJ Abrams is involved in developing a Live Action remake of this. I'm actually fine with the idea. I know there's a big fuss about possible whitewashing, especially after Ghost in a Shell last year. It all depends on how exactly they adapt it. A lot of the story is strongly tied to Japan. I'm not sure how they'll work around that. The core ideas of the story could be used and adapted well though. I'm optimistic.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend