Expats movie review & film summary (2024) – Roger Ebert

“Individuals like me…. Are they ever forgiven?” 

Very like writer-director Lulu Wang’s deeply private characteristic debut, “The Farewell,” her follow-up for Prime Video, “Expats,” grapples with the intersection of grief, womanhood, and geographic displacement—what it’s prefer to really feel loss so distant from house. This time, it’s within the type of a sprawling, gargantuan collection that spans six episodes and 6 and a half hours of weeping, unrelenting grief. It’s a robust however harrowing watch, an train in prestige-drama distress that’s greatest absorbed in small doses.

Set in a small neighborhood of prosperous expats residing in Hong Kong in 2014 (just like the supply materials, Yasmin Y.Ok. Lee’s 2016 novel “Expatriates”), “Expats” branches its narrative alongside the affect of an apocalyptic household tragedy and the three girls whose lives change probably the most in consequence. Architect-turned-housewife Margaret (Nicole Kidman) is haunted by the year-long disappearance of her youngest boy, going about her days in a fog whereas she searches for any clue her little one is alive. Her good buddy and neighbor, Hilary (Sarayu Blue), an Indian-American expat, grapples together with her flagging marriage to her husband (Jack Huston) amid infidelity and infertility. Then there’s Mercy (Ji-young Yoo), a Korean-American twentysomething working odd jobs in Hong Kong whose impulsive selections result in tragedy for each Margaret and Hilary.

Wang hides the specificities of that tragedy from us within the present’s first two episodes: choosing up a 12 months after the incident, all we all know is hidden in Kidman’s dazed, autopilot shuffling by way of her life, the panic she feels when she thinks she sees a well-known face amid a bunch of identically-dressed caterers. The pall that falls over her husband’s (Brian Tee) birthday celebration, understanding it’s additionally the anniversary of their boy’s disappearance. It’s not until the top of episode 2—a flashback to the day in query—that we see precisely what occurred and why Mercy could really feel accountable.

Whereas “The Farewell” leavened such heavy circumstances with a deep effectively of charming humor, there’s little of that to be present in “Expats.” Every of the principle characters feels the load of the world on their shoulders, compounded by the dual expectations of wealth and womanhood. Margaret is just too dazed and obsessed together with her loss to be a superb mom to her kids; Hilary’s quest to pursue a lifetime of childless independence creates a wall between her and her husband. Younger Mercy remains to be a toddler herself, nonetheless making an attempt to determine who she is and what she needs. She’s starved for function and wracked with guilt over what she’s achieved. 

It’s a trio of heartbreaking performances, led by Kidman, who imbues Margaret with the type of glassy brittleness she’s lengthy recognized for. Her Margaret shares numerous DNA with Grace from “The Others” — a buttoned-up lady barely capable of hold her grief from spilling out by way of her face. Her son’s disappearance has damaged her, maybe in irreparable methods. Nearly as good as Kidman is, although, “Expats” best surprises include Blue’s acerbic, cynical flip as Hilary—a sophisticated, confrontational lady bristling in opposition to the familial expectations of Indian tradition—and Yoo’s free-spirited, flighty Mercy. Kidman’s mastery of the shape is well-documented, however “Expats” gives great platforms for these two actresses: a stalwart supporting participant for years and a recent breakout star within the making.

However what units “Expats” aside from the dozen different status streaming dramas about grief (severely, throw a rock) is its deep effectively of cultural specificity, and the sensitivity with which Wang presents it. Director of Pictures Anna Franquesa-Solano’s probing, curious lens captures each the working-class vibrancy of Hong Kong’s evening markets and the chilly, alienating modernism of the prosperous expats. It’s a world of fancy events and tight-knit wealthy people, all navigating their Western guilt over the maids, cooks, and babysitters (whom Hilary euphemistically calls “helpers”) they rent to subsidize their lives of avarice. Fancy dinner events conflict with the budding pro-democracy protests of the Umbrella Motion, first seen solely by way of TV stories then, by way of Mercy’s fling with a Korean woman, in residing, harmful shade. 

That divide between the haves and have-nots is rarely extra clearly articulated than in “Expats”’ fifth episode, a 96-minute detour into the lives of the servants we’ve seen largely within the background. Principally Filipino, the home staff we see within the margins lastly get to shine, as they spend their time off gossiping and pursuing their very own pursuits. “We all know all the things about these individuals, issues their closest buddies don’t even know,” says one. 

This focus is sensible: they’re expatriates, too, in any case. Margaret’s nanny Essie (Ruby Ruiz) is a lady torn between her loyalty to her grieving employers and her household again within the Philippines urging her to retire and are available again house. Hilary’s “helper” Puri (a radiant Amelyn Pardenilla) finds herself performing emotional labor for her employer within the wake of her crumbling marriage. Truthfully, the remainder of the present seems like gilding the lily; “Expats” might have simply been this, a feature-length movie about these working-class girls and the skinny line between member of the family and worker they need to stroll.