Can We Talk 2

Growing Up Smith, the movie

         I was pleasantly surprised the other night. It was bedtime. My father had started watching a movie, which I knew I couldn't stay up to see. But he called my attention to it because of the name. I watched for a moment, and it looked stupid. But very quickly, I was hooked. Dad was not. He got up and went to bed. I stayed to watch the entire movie. It was great.

         I like The Wonder Years and The Goldbergs, both TV shows told from the viewpoint of an adult who remembers well the events of his childhood and his feelings. This was the same kind of thing, but told by an Indian boy living in America. (Notice these funny, nostalgic coming of age stories are all told by males.) His whole family wants to live the American dream, but the two children desperately want to fit in now. The girl is a bit older and blends in more easily; being pretty helps. The parents have not given up their old ways, their aspirations for their children, or their religious practices.

         Unfortunately for Smith, Halloween, that sacred day so anticipated by children, falls on a high holy day for Hindus. This vividly paints the conflict for us. The father is the strict enforcer of their old country ways, the boy wants to embrace what all his chums are doing, and the mother works very hard to appease them both but falls short. By following Smith through his school days, we see the bullying and harassment he faces for being different. We see his family being successful in some ways and disappointed in others as they try to be American and Indian at the same time.

         A great deal of humor is added in by their neighbors, who do not go to church, are willing to accept them as they are, and have a daughter who becomes best friends with Smith. This neighbor is played by Jason Lee, the actor who played Earl in My Name Is Earl. He wears flannel shirts, drives a pick up and goes hunting. He takes Smith deer hunting one day and fails to follow his own good advice; he gets wounded and can't work for a long time. He is like a cowboy to Smith, and he is his Tonto.

         Most of the story takes place when Smith is ten. It is framed by his remarks as a grown man, who according to his father's plan, has become a neurosurgeon and married a girl arranged for him when he was a child in India, and lives there like a raja (his father's dream). He has returned to America at the end and reunites with his parents and sister, who married her American high school sweetheart. Once again he receives advice from his friend across the street and begins the next chapter of his life.

         It was wonderfully touching and insightful. I loved it and highly recommend it.