West North West

For a movie that exceeds the two hour mark, I expected there to be more… something to West North West.

The film begins with Iranian Naima taking classes in Japan. The quiet Naima has dreams of studying and living in Japan permanently. Naima develops a friendship with a bartender named Kei. The two find companionship and understanding between them, despite their rather different life stories. Kei is queer, and in a relationship with a woman named Ai. Ai finds herself and her relationship threatened by Naima.

Does Ai have reason to worry? Well, certainly not in the first scene. Ai develops jealousy right off the bat and basically suggests Kei isn’t allowed to have female friends. That’s a red flag, as they say. But Kei and Naima’s friendship might be something more. At least on Kei’s part. It’s harder to get a read on Naima’s feelings. Meeting Kei is the first time she’s encountered the concept of lesbianism. I don’t think Naima’s internalized the concept enough to figure out if it applies to her personally, yet.

In place of an overt romance, Kei and Naima’s friendship shows the necessity of basic human connection. It’s not like they wholly understand each other. Naima is confused about Kei’s sexuality. Kei is overtly judgmental of Naima’s Muslim faith. Yet still, the two women forge a valuable connection because they offer each other time and kindness, despite their differences. There’s a strong current of loneliness that runs through West North West. And Kei and Naima’s connection is really the one time this loneliness feels like it lifts.

Ai is the most underwritten of the characters. This is my main critique of the film. At 125 minutes, there’s more than enough time to give all of these characters more depth. But especially Ai. Mostly, Ai is an antagonist. She’s a jealous girlfriend. She doesn’t really develop past this. We learn that Ai is particularly possessive of Kei because of how hard it is to find another female lover in Japan. We also directly see that despite similarities in their marginalized identities, she cannot comprehend that what Naima is going through might be similar. And yes, it’s true that there’s people in real life who never do this either. And lives are longer than two hours. But for a movie that is of this length, I wanted some sort of development. Hell, make her worse over time. Just do something.

“Just do something” is frankly, how I felt for a lot of West North West. It’s not that I mind the story. The bones of it are really good. And there are some really good moments and scenes. But I do think this film could be as powerful as a short film. Looking back on the film, I just don’t know how West North West spent its two hours. So little happened. In particular, I would’ve liked to see more character growth for all three leads. The place the characters start is a great and interesting one for a drama. But the film spends most of its runtime not really moving beyond that starting point.

Overall rating: 5.5/10

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