Perfectly balances all the elements, providing plenty in all of them (SUGGESTIVE SPOILERS)

Rating: Null/10 (12 November 2017)

I came to Your Name only knowing that it was a body-swap film, and that it was supposed to be good. Beyond that I did not know much at all. I cannot remember if I was told it was a comedy, or merely assumed it was a comedy on the basis that all bodyswap films seem to play that element to the maximum. Regardless, I did not know much about it.
The film opens very much in the genre that I expected, and we spend the first half of the film in this vein; two teenagers in different parts of Japan swap bodies every so often – a boy and girl. After a while it becomes a routine, and they leave each other notes on their telephones to help the visitor play out the lives correctly. In this half the film is lively, funny, sweet, and enjoyable for what it does with the characters in terms of establishing them but also swapping them around. The middle of the film sees a change to this direction, and instead the root of the jumping, and more detail of the situation, is laid out. At this point there is much more mystery, urgency, and drama to the story as it unfolds. It does this in a way that in no way discards what has gone before, but uses our charmed investment to make the second half work even better. It does this all the way to an ending which seems like nothing to describe it, but yet left me with tears in my eyes.
The character creation and the spot-on judgment of tone are two key elements in making it work, but of course not only. Animation is great throughout and the music, although a little corny perhaps, plays off the emotions in the story well – again a factor in me having something in my eye at the end. I'm not sure a second watch will have quite the same impact on me as the first time did, but I will watch it again. It is a great little film – worthy of the praise it received on release in Europe, and worth watching even if you have zero interest in subtitled or animated films.