My Review of "The Sun Is Also A Star"

The Sun Is Also A Star might not have been the best title for this movie. Then again it's hard to find a name for a movie that is kind of a generic concept. It's basically your standard boy meets girl story to a T. Still they have to have a twist to this story to differentiate this movie from all the other cookie cutters. There is a spin but it's not a drastic spin but if this movie came out 10 years ago this movie would have been considered mind boggling.

I was a little worried from the get go when this movie started with the main character Natasha reciting some intellectual quote. Oh no, it's not one of those pretentious smarter than thou movies is it? No it really isn't. It's just basically a woman trying to figure out herself as she's going through a big change in her life.

She basically explains what her family had to go through in order for them to move from Jamaica to the United States. Unfortunately, it's the day before their family has to move back to Jamaica. All she's known is New York. She's lived there all her life and doesn't want to move to Jamaica. Granted none of her family members want to move either. She's convinced that she can fight to stay in New York despite it being the day before they have to leave.

We then jump to Daniel. He's getting ready for an interview for a recommendation so he can go to school and become a medical doctor. The problem is that he doesn't want to become a doctor. He wants to focus on writing poems. His Korean parents put a ton of pressure on him to be a doctor throughout his life.

The thing about Daniel is that he's a hopeless romantic and truly believes in fate. So there seems to be a series of coincidence that has him notice Natasha while he's headed to his interview. He believes that it's been written in the stars that he should be with her.

Unfortunately Natasha isn't of the same mindset. She's already stressed about the fact her family has to move away the next day. It doesn't help that she doesn't believe that love exists. I know it already sounds super cheesy but it's based off a book. People that read books are all into this sort of thing because it sounds better on paper than on the big screen.

Daniel tells Natasha that he'll be able to convince her that she will fall in love with him in one day. Apparently there was some scientific study that proved that this could be done through a series of questions and actions. Natasha obviously agrees because this wouldn't be a movie if she didn't.

Throughout the movie we learn more things about what these two are planning for their lives. We also learn more about each of their families and their motivations. It's a little lesson in their cultural backgrounds as well.

I like the fact that it was an Asian man and Black woman that fell in love with each other. I don't think I've ever seen a movie with this combination in interracial love. In fact, it's pretty uncommon to see this combination in real life. 10 years ago this movie would have blown our minds because of this factor. Today it's not really talked about but maybe it's because it's not common as well?

Still I think the cast was pretty well cast. The issue I had was that there wasn't a lot of banter between the two. There was some small chit chat but we don't really hear what they say to each other. I'm sure they had a lot of dialogue in the movie but you don't really get that in this movie. Instead there are a ton of montages that feature the two talking to one another and spending time together.

I can tell they tried to make New York city as the third character to this movie but I don't think they implemented this very well. It just looked like a bunch of buildings that could have been anywhere with the exception of the landscape shots.

Overall, I did enjoy this movie and having the two characters from their backgrounds was a nice change of pace from what we normally see. I think the book may have had a little too much content to contain into one movie. Still it's an okay watch. I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. If you're looking for a run of the mill romance movie then this is it. Nothing extraordinarily amazing about this one.