"Your Name" Review
For those who have fallen in love with the style of Makoto Shinkai's storytelling, "Your Name." will serve as a perfect companion piece to 2007's "5 Centimeters Per Second". That being said, the only characters that show any sort of development are the two leads. The movie is held up by one staple and wobbles on a flimsy foundation -the assumption that I'll fall in love with these two characters miraculously falling in love with each other. On top of all that are the film's excellent visuals (and no other director is able to capture environments quite like Shinkai, mind you.) which are great and all and strengthen the on-the-nose dramatic needs of its two characters, but it still somewhat fails to delivery a worthwhile character piece. Not to mention the final act felt like a cliche of "The Butterfly Effect" proportions. Although it never really dips towards the mediocrity of that film, the final moments of Your Name made me feel just as hollow.
Everyone will admit that there is something special about Shinkai and his filmography but a lot of his work seem to be missing the subtlety and nuances that make his characters as memorable as the characters you'd see from a Hayao Miyazaki or a Mamoru Hosoda. It's not a terrible movie though! The consistent low-fantasy logic that Your Name's fantastical elements operates on feel unpredictable and original and provides a special visual/audio treat at the cinema for casual audiences and Anime die-hards alike. It tackles themes of love, loss and literal star-crossed lovers -you know, all the themes that one would expect from an average love story about two people who are prone to Freaky Friday body swaps.