Movie Review: 'The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu'
Good representation in a bad movie, The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu disappoints.
The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu (2023)
Directed by Anna Chi
Written by Anna Chi, Donald Martin
Starring Lisa Lu, Michelle Krusiec, Adrian Pasdar, Joely Fisher, Archie Kao, Rochelle Ying
Release Date March 21st, 2023
Published April 12th, 2023
On the one hand, seeing a story prominently feature three generations of an Asian American family on the big screen feels fresh and new. On the other hand, a movie this bad doesn't do all that much for representation for anyone. The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu is a painfully stretched sitcom episode premise that has been dragged to feature length for reasons that defy logic and entertainment value. The story of an elderly woman not wanting to spend her final days in a hospital bed isn't a terrible idea but in execution, it's a low rent bore.
The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu centers on dyspeptic senior citizen, Mrs. Wu (Lisa Lu). Mrs. Wu is staying at a high end nursing home and is set to celebrate her 88th birthday but she's far too miserable to enjoy it. Despite what we are told is a high end nursing home experience, Mrs. Wu describes the place as a prison that her daughter, Mary (Michelle Krusiec) and her husband, Brian (Adrian Pasdar) have sentenced her to. Mrs. Wu wants to spend her last days either in her own home or on the road in Carmel, California, where she lived the biggest moments of her life.
After a disastrous birthday celebration, Mrs. Wu corners her granddaughter, Emma (Rochelle Ying) and Emma's best friend, Karen (Tiffany Wu), and asks them to sneak her out for an impromptu road trip. In exchange, Grandma gives Emma a VHS tape message from her late father, one she wasn't supposed to get for another year or so, on her 18th birthday. Emma and Karen then enlist the help of Mrs. Wu's best friend and caregiver, Charlotte (Joely Fisher) to help them with this scheme, and keep Grandma alive long enough to reach Carmel.
Subplots abound in The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu and each is less interesting or relevant than the last. Karen is coming out as gay. There is nothing wrong with this except that it has no bearing whatsoever on her relationship to her closest friend, Emma, who accepts her friend's revelation with the kind of loving support one would hope to get from their childhood best friend. There seems to be an element of Queer-baiting going on as the film seems to want to create tension between the friends, perhaps with Karen having a crush on Emma, but this is hand-waved away with Emma's subplot about a long time male friend she hopes will go to prom with her. Heterosexuality safely confirmed, the LGBTQ elements are dismissed mostly unaddressed.
Joely Fisher, best known for playing Ellen Degeneres' best friend on Ellen, is a subplot all to herself. Fisher plays her character with an utterly awful Irish accent. Why? Who knows. It has no bearing on who the character is and does not create any entertainment whatsoever as Joely works the accent like an acting class student trying accents for the first time and struggling with the concept. Fisher's Charlotte is also a singer and somehow the road trip also coincides with getting her on an American Idol-style TV show in a plot completely devoid of purpose.
You know you're in trouble as a movie watcher when a film's cinematography reminds you of a bad TV show. The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu looks as if it were shot as a single camera comedy series for some mid-level television network. Then, it somehow ended up as a feature film but the low rent TV aesthetic remains. This is a desperately awful looking movie, all beige and basic in every facet of presentation. The muted cinematography only serves to forefront the desperately dull story and bizarre subplots at hand in The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu.
Are there good things in The Disappearance of Mrs Wu? I guess the acting isn't terrible. The actors appear committed to these characters. Sadly, they are trapped in a sitcom that's been forced to become a movie. There simply isn't enough story to make a movie and thus we get bizarre and ungainly subplots and a sweaty, desperate performance from Joely Fisher that left me deeply embarrassed for this otherwise talented and recognizable Hollywood lifer.
The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu is available now on most streaming rental services. I don't recommend it even as I can respect the fact that it is a rare feature film that features three generations of Asian American characters. That's something, but it is not nearly enough to justify recommending a movie this bizarrely misconceived as a feature film. As a TV show perhaps these awful subplots and the main story about an elderly woman approaching the end of her life and the resolution she hopes to find with her past, might play as a comedy drama. As a movie it looks awful and, from a story standpoint, it is deeply undercooked.
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About the Creator
Sean Patrick
Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.
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