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Sep 22, 2014 By Kyle Turner Web Exclusive

In some minor but important ways, writer-director Hong Khaou’s film, Lilting, resembles The Wedding Banquet: on its surface, it has the same kind of conceit wherein a young man must hide his sexuality (and boyfriend) from his, in this case, mother. And while Lilting is far from funny, it channels Ang Lee’s film in its exploration of cross-generational ideas of love, attention, and tradition, in gentle, meaningful ways.

Only in Lilting, the boyfriend/son (Andrew Leung) has died and the mother (Cheing Pei-pei), who speaks no English, is coping alone, trying to find solace in a new gentleman friend (Peter Bowles). The “friend” of her son (Ben Whishaw) reaches out to her, attempting to foster the budding relationship with the gentleman friend through the use of an amateur translator (Naomi Christie).

Lilting finds its strength in its smallest moments, when memory is intermingled with reality, making the transition from one to the other hit hard with the viewer. As the title suggests, there’s a unique rhythm and stride about the film, its pace perhaps exemplified by “¿Quién será?” (“Sway”): it’s a carefully choreographed dance through emotions and feelings of grief and coping, loneliness and love, with each actor’s performance representing a rare precision.

Its subplot involving the gentleman friend Allen is its weakest element: it’s necessary given the direction that Khaou wants to take the story, but it feels, at times, to get in the way of the feelings he wants to examine. If any of this is played for humor (and my guess is that some of it is), it’s too rooted in a seriousness that permits the humor to be executed well.

Imperfect though it is, it’s a film that circles in on outstanding performances, and can stand on the impressiveness of universality in its themes and specificity in its experience. Lilting is quietly beautiful.

Author rating: 7/10