ROSEMEAD: 3 ½ STARS. “in its heartbreak, there is misguided compassion.”
SYNOPSIS: In “Rosemead,” a new based-on-a-true-story drama now playing in theatres, Lucy Liu plays a terminally ill widow who struggles to support her son as his symptoms of schizophrenia intensify.
CAST: Lucy Liu, Lawrence Shou, Orion Lee, Jennifer Lim, Madison Hu and James Chen. Directed by Eric Lin.
REVIEW: “Rosemead” gives star Lucy Liu her first leading role in a drama, and she makes the most of it. Raw and ultimately harrowing, it is the performance of her career.
Set in Gabriel Valley, California, “Rosemead” focusses on terminally ill Chinese immigrant Irene (Lui), and Joe, her 17-year-old son. Once a star athlete, a recent diagnosis of schizophrenia has left him paranoid, hallucinating and violently acting out.
As his interest in school shootings intensifies, Irene, who has kept her son’s deteriorating mental state a secret for fear of stigma, is given a devastating diagnosis of her own. With just months to live and her guardianship of Joe coming to an end on his upcoming eighteenth birthday, she goes to extremes to protect him from an uncertain future. “This is Irene Chao,” she tells 911, “I’m at Sunset Hills Motel. Something has happened.”
“Rosemead’s” shocking conclusion, based on true events, will certainly spark moral and ethical debates. (NO SPOILERS HERE, BUT BE CAREFUL) Intensely disturbing, if this was a work of pure fiction, it might be accused of, at the very best, of being the most downbeat ending we’re likely to see this year, or, at worst, an emotionally manipulative depiction of desperation.
As it is, director Eric Lin and screenwriter Marilyn Fu’s nonjudgmental and restrained treatment of the shocking real-life events allow the unexpected ending to retain its power without feeling exploitive. Seen in context, disturbing as it may be, it is a sensitive portrait of a person driven to the unimaginable by fear. The ending’s violence isn’t excused or supported. If anything, the ending is an opening for further conversation on the effects of stigma, illness and grief in this catastrophe.
“Rosemead” doesn’t pull any punches in its unflinching depiction of Joe’s mental illness but doesn’t quite go far enough in explaining the teenager’s obsession with school shootings. The portrait painted of Joe’s schizophrenia is roughhewn, without much nuance.
The same cannot be said about Liu’s unvarnished take on Irene. She digs deep, getting under the skin of a character at her breaking point, pushed to the unconceivable. Quietly powerful, her work reveals depths unseen in her more mainstream work.
“Rosemead’s” story is tragedy upon tragedy, so don’t buy a ticket to fortify your soul. This is a grim movie, without a ray of sunshine to be seen, but in its heartbreak, there is compassion, no matter how misguided.
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