Saving Face

Writer-director Alice Wu has makes a fine debut with this story of a young doctor, Wil (Michelle Krusiec), dealing with a traditionalist mother (Joan Chen) who is pregnant by a mystery father. The young woman is gay and afraid to tell her mom, who is typically trying to set her up with men. The movie gives equal time to the mother-daughter relationship and Wil’s experiences with her lover (Lynn Chen). The film gets a bit maudlin at times, but it has plenty of sweet moments and humor to cancel out the silly parts. Chen hasn’t been this good since Twin Peaks, delivering a performance that marks her second coming as an actress. Krusiec (who was the nosebleed girl in Cursed) is a talented performer, as is Chen. This is one of the summer’s great surprises. Wu is a fine director, and it will be exciting to see what she does next.