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'Saving Face' is funny, bold, thoughtful

Films that deal with the immigrant experience and how the next generation breaks from the old world are as common as those with shots of the New York skyline.

Alice Wu's directing and screenwriting debut, Saving Face, has both, which doesn't diminish its appeal or impact.

Sony Pictures Classics 'Saving Face' B+ Director: Alice Wu Starring: Michelle Krusiec, Joan Chen, Lynn Chen, Jin Wang, Guang Lan Koh Run time: 91 minutes Release date: May 27, 2005 Rating: R for language, sexuality, some nudity. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "Saving Face"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

It's funny, the way other treatments of hyphenated America (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) are. Older Chinese men snack on whatever they please from the buffet, only to be scolded by their wives about the gaseous consequences.

It's bold, particularly considering the standard disciplined image of Chinese-American culture. There are a couple of tasteful but freely expressed scenes that may nudge this otherwise mainstream film into the lesbian category for some viewers.

It's imbued with thoughtful details, such as the grandfather enacting his morning tai chi ritual on an urban basketball court ennobled by dappled sun, drying rain and a scattering of leaves.

Played by Michelle Krusiec, the central character is Wil (short for Wilhelmina), a trim, contained, unadorned 28-year-old surgeon with a bright future in New York and no interest in the men her mother (Joan Chen) has matched her with since walking in on her and another woman.

Wil is thoroughly American, but takes the train to Flushing each weekend to visit her extended family and "swim in the Chinese gene pool." She exists between two worlds — the China of her parents and her native country, modern medicine and the herbal supplements a family friend delivers weekly to enhance her marriageability and the wish to please family but also pursue love.

She calls her mother "Ma" and usually addresses her in English. Ma speaks to her in Mandarin. Rather than distancing the viewer, the subtitles, for once, forge a connection with Wil.

Her eventually open affair with a sleek ballet dancer (Lynn Chen as Vivian) will eventually scandalize her mother and grandfather, who's distraught about losing face in his community. And no wonder, because that bombshell follows an even bigger one. Wil's long widowed, 48-year-old mother is pregnant and won't reveal the identity of the father. She moves in with Wil, who finds herself trying to find a man for Ma to marry.

Poor Grandpa (Jin Wang) hasn't seen the worst of it yet. That takes place at the climax of a wedding with elements of Runaway Bride and The Graduate.

From that springboard, Saving Face returns to humor as it rolls to a contrived conclusion, considering the jolts preceding it. But there's comfort in that as well.