RATING (0 to ****): ***1/2

Cluttered up for months in "Very Long Wait" on Netflix, Makoto Shinkai's latest film "5 Centimeters Per Second" was either obviously in demand, in short supply, or both.

With an unusual runtime of 60 minutes and split into three segments, Shinkai manages to not make the same mistake as in "The Place Promised in Our Early Days" by expanding too far on other things. Instead, it's at the same concise level as his breakout short, "Voices of a Distant Star", but departs from the sci-fi setting of both films to something more down-to-earth and contemporary.

The essential ingredients are all there, though-- a love story involving two childhood friends, Takaki and Akari, sickly in elementary school and therefore stuck in the library together. With remarkably easy chemistry, they're split apart by other circumstances, namely, moving away. Shinkai's specialty, sentimentality, has not been lost, but after the first segment of 25 minutes ended, I was so heartbroken that I wanted to stop the movie right away. Reluctantly, I pressed on.

In truth, the film is two segments and an epilogue, and what's never lost in any of those is their sincerity and poignancy. Shinkai's latest is likely to leave a dent in you somewhere close to 5 centimeters wide, but you'll be glad to have seen it. It's a love story stripped down to the essential ingredients that we're all more familiar with in our own lives, and remarkably free of villains.

Perhaps the best part is the ending; it's a collage of stunning beauty, and unlike anything you've seen before. Or, at least, seen done this well.


MPAA: Not Rated (could be G)
Runtime: 1 hour, 3 minutes (60 minutes of "real movie")