Lynn Chen Movies
The bittersweet pangs of first love among sixth graders sets the stage for this romantic comedy. Gabe (Josh Hutcherson) is an 11-year-old boy living on the more exclusive side of New York City; his parents, Adam (Bradley Whitford) and Leslie (Cynthia Nixon), are splitting up, and as their marriage slowly crumbles, they've both become increasingly protective of their son. While most of Gabe's friends are still firmly in the "girls are yucky" stage, Gabe has found his head turned by Rosemary (Charlie Ray), a cute girl in his karate class. Negotiating the tricky waters of impressing the opposite sex for the first time, Gabe works up the nerve to ask Rosemary out on a date, and in time the two begin spending their spare time together. But just when Gabe feels ready to tackle the next step and tell Rosemary that he's in love with her, he learns that she'll be spending the summer away at camp, meaning he'll have to spend his vacation pining for her. Meanwhile, as Gabe turns to Adam for advice, Adam begins taking another look at where his relationship with Leslie went sour. Little Manhattan was the first directorial effort for writer and producer Mark Levin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
An Asian-American woman and her mother both find their private lives are becoming a family matter in this romantic comedy-drama. Wilhelmina Pang (Michelle Krusiec) is a surgeon living in Manhattan whose mother (Joan Chen) is eager for her to settle down with a nice man and get married. What Ma doesn't know is that Wilhelmina happens to be a lesbian -- or rather, Ma prefers not to acknowledge it, since she once walked in on Wilhelmina and her girlfriend several years before. As it happens, Wilhelmina is looking for someone special in her life, and thinks she may have found her in Vivian (Lynn Chen), a beautiful dancer, but a fear of commitment and a desire to keep her medical career on track is making their relationship problematic. As Wilhelmina tries to get her love life in order, her mother's shifts into crisis mode. Ma, a 48-year-old widow, has just discovered she's pregnant, and her staunchly traditional father (Li Zhiyu) will not allow her back into the home they share until she's married someone respectable. Unwilling to name the father of her baby, Ma is forced to move in with Wilhelmina, and while enduring the emotional roller coaster of pregnancy she is being pressured by friends and relatives to marry Cho (Nathaniel Geng), a sweet but boring man she doesn't especially like. Saving Face was the first feature film from writer and director Alice Wu. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michelle Krusiec, Joan Chen, (more)
- 2001
The owner of a Chinese restaurant is beaten to death. The detectives collar a teenaged suspect, which leads to the conclusion that the perpetrator and his friends killed simply for the thrill of it. The DA's office is faced with the decision to opt for a lesser penalty on the basis of the perpetrators' ages, or to go the distance and demand that the teenaged murderers be sentenced to death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
