While reading the first leg of the book, I found it fascinating the way Ozeki broke up the structure of the book, blending Ruth’s own close reading of the material with the POV of Nao’s diary. Through this, we get to be inside Nao’s head and also Ruth’s, and it gives us a chance to interpret Nao’s words before Ruth even gets there. What gives Ruth such a drive to discover the truth behind this diary? It seems to me that Ruth has found a strong connection with Nao – a certain, desolate familiarity perhaps?

Nao is a very depressed person who has felt like time has slipped completely from her. At the tender age of 16, we find a person who has already given up on life. She is separated from the life she loved (in Sunnyvale) and has become this invisible, anonymous person. I feel Ruth might sympathize with such feelings, as she too is cut off from the life she loved (in New York) for a place where it seems, at least to me, that she might be too settled in. Her own concept of time loss corresponds with Nao’s, but Ruth’s loss is symbolized in a memoir that seems determined to remain unfinished. I also found a sense of “burden” placed upon both women’s shoulders. In Nao’s case, her father is suicidal and bares much of the weight for what happened to the family, which obviously affects Nao because she deeply worries about her father. Ruth had her own parental “burden” with her mother having Alzheimer’s, but since her mother’s death, has felt like perhaps she has done nothing worthwhile with her life since that “burden” passed. I’m eager to see how this connection develops but so far this is my take on it.

Liar, liar, bums on fire.

First of all, I thought the first hour of the film was great. It starts ominously with Khan being detained in an airport, but it quickly moves into his back-story and his relationship with his family. Seeing his early years, his mother’s love for him and his brother’s rejection of him was very interesting. I’ve never really met anyone with Aspergers before, so I cannot speak to the accuracy of his portrayal, but I found his performance to be very endearing. His relationship with Mandira plays out beautifully as they get to know each other and overall I enjoyed that aspect of the story very much. I also have to say that I love how this film also focused on the racism that exploded post 9/11 and how that affected the Khans because, much like the Japanese internment, it’s a part of American history that isn’t really represented on the silver screen very often. In that sense, this film serves a very important role in portraying a different side to the post-9/11 climate, and could do well to educate people that racism is still something that happens and needs to be dealt with. With a message as strong as this, you’d think it could be seen as a major victory. Here’s a hint: it isn’t.

The reason why I say this is because this film has a whole other racist issue, in which we meet a black community in Georgia which, for some reason, seem to live in a village straight out of the colonial days. When the film shifts into Forrest Gump mode (another problem I have with it haha), Khan finds himself in the care of a black woman named Mama Jenny in this strange town, and boy does this character feel like a Mammy/Aunt Jemima stereotype ripped right from the early 1900s. Despite this film making a big deal about Obama being the first black president, it didn’t really do a good job of portraying African Americans. The whole hurricane molly bit felt very forced, as if they were trying to hit me over the head with the theme, and I think they could have dropped that whole subplot. The film would have precious minutes shaved off its running time and we would have a much more cohesive film. So beyond that, the film had pacing issues, felt too bloated for its own good, and had some major continuity issues which I’ll address now. Okay so maybe “continuity” is not the right word, but this film handled the passage of time very poorly. It’s supposed to cover 2001-2008/09, but it never really feels like there’s any growth or difference with the characters. Mandira’s son and his friend seem to never age, despite being kids during 9/11 and apparently during high school as well. That part is more of a minor nitpick, but I felt like it the timeline was sort of cobbled together. All to all, My Name is Khan has the best intentions but it was just poorly executed. The only bright spots in this film were the two main characters as I thought their relationship was beautifully played out, but Mandira is sort of shuffled to the background during the second half of the film, which kind of sucks considering how much she brings to the film.

Overall, I give this film 2 1/2 bums out of 5.