Review of Suzume

*No Spoilers* This review is for the film Suzume. Summary: Suzume is a film written by Makoto Shinkai and incorporates similar art and music, though the story tends to be more focused on adventure than romance. Suzume is an interesting character who is forced into an adventure and gradually grows as the story progresses. The film has excellent art and music. This may be of interest to you if you enjoy adventure stories or romance, although the romance is actually quite forced and detracts from the overall message of the film. Story: 5/10 The story is generally interesting with some more action than Makoto Shinkai's other films. It explores themesof growing up, death, and grief; however, it also forces romance in a way that detracts from these themes. If this film focused more on the general relationships between characters and how they interact within the plot, then it would have been a phenomenal and meaningful film; likewise, Suzume would have grown more as a character, and the ending section's plot twist (no spoilers) would have been absolutely amazing. Instead, certain scenes are jarring and seem to force characters into behaving differently than expected, rather than growing naturally. The story calls Suzume to be a hero, but then it suddenly disregards her character to instead make decisions based on a forced love narrative that is crammed into the second half the story. Imagine falling in love with someone after knowing each other for a few days, and then deciding that you need to rescue that person because you are madly in love. It just completely ruins the story. Aside from this, the story is quite interesting, but random changes in characters' behaviors, which go unexplained, make the story frustrating to follow. Of Makoto Shinkai's films, this one has the least clear direction by the end. If there were no forced romance or sudden, unexplained character changes, then I would have rated the story an 8 or 9. I think the overall message is wonderful, and that ending section could have been spectacular.

Art: 10/10
As with Your Name, the art is stunning and is by far the highlight of the film.

Sound: 7/10
Radwimps wrote and performed the music for this film, and it is a wonderful soundtrack. The songs are fantastic, especially the main theme, but it feels like many songs don't line up with the story. This soundtrack also feels pretty repetitive.

Characters: 6/10
These characters aren't terrible. If the story focused on the adventure and themes of grief, loss, growing, etc., then I'd probably give this section an 8. However, the characters are blatantly forced throughout the story. The side characters are somewhat interesting, but they are static once the plot delves into the romance between character Suzume and a love interest that should have simply been a friend or adventure buddy. Again, if Suzume, as a character, were focused on the adventure and growth rather than romance, she could have been well-written. Her growth at the very end would have been beautiful; however, she is instead written to love an underdeveloped character rather than herself. As a therapist, I can certainly say that self-love will always be more important than loving a piece of furniture.

Enjoyment: 5/10
I really wanted to enjoy this one. At about a half an hour in, it seemed to be my favorite Shinkai film. From there, however, the quality of the story-telling and characters declined. I did enjoy the art and most of the soundtrack, but I was overall disappointed. This could have been the deepest Shinkai story, exploring more profound themes than he usually does, but instead he forced romance.

Overall: 6.6/10