Inspired by a harrowing true story, Lucy Liu transforms in a riveting, career-redefining performance as an ailing woman who takes drastic measures to protect her troubled teenage son.

I was not familiar with the story that inspired the tale of Rosemead, and I hadn’t even watched the trailer before seeing it, which made everything unfolding on screen fresh and unexpected. And the less you know, the better. Lucy Liu is Irene, a Taiwanese immigrant in the San Gabriel Valley who, after the death of her husband, is single mom to their son, Joe (Lawrence Shou, in his first feature film). Joe is a teenager struggling with schizophrenia and Irene, who barely speaks English and has her own ailments to tend to, balances the culture clash of East vs. West ideologies on mental illness and treatment.

You can tell early on that the movie probably isn’t going to give you a happy ending, but how everything plays out is engaging and harrowing. Liu is exceptional, shedding her commanding, sexy, dominant persona for this passive, shuffling, complicated character. Shou does amazing work with his extreme character.

Co-writer Marilyn Fu and writer/director Eric Lin get credit for not judging their characters and letting the love between mother and son carry the film through its more harrowing moments. That the movie feels important doesn’t always serve it well, as some of the better moments are in the scenes in between the big moments. The somewhat simplistic flashback sequence also feels a little too writerly for a movie that is otherwise so grounded in the emotion and reality of its characters.  

Jonathan’s grade – B