Children on Their Birthdays

`Children on their Birthdays' is not meant to tax your cranium or exercise your sense of adventure; rather, to take you on a gentle stroll through the (not quite) coming of age of four thirteen-year-olds in 1940's Alabama. Joe Pichler and Jesse Plemmons demonstrate some real versatility in portraying the two young friends/rivals and Tania Raymonde delivers a dose of the same smarts and mystery she's done on TV in "Malcolm in the Middle". You can take your young kids to this one. It supplies plenty of tenderness and a little slapstick as the kids and the town get mixed around with romance, snake oil, some amazingly hardy roses and a really fine old red tow truck.

I rented the DVD because I was simply in the mood to watch a movie, and I'd seen almost everything else new that hadn't already been rented out. So I gave "Children on Their Birthdays" a shot, not expecting too much.

I was surprised to discover that I really enjoyed it. In fact, the day after I had watched it, I found myself thinking about the characters and smiling. So I bought the DVD and have watched it several times since then.

I won't go into a detailed description, because that's already been done. But the characters are endearing. Despite a forced southern accent by Miss Lily Jane Bobbit, she is still the centerpiece of the movie. All the children performed wonderfully.

The movie is a study in contrasts: Honesty vs. dishonesty, rural vs. urban, child vs. adult, etc. Overall, it's a movie deserving of a higher rating than it has received.

I gave it an 8.

Somewhere, in an alternate reality, it could be possible for a 13-year-old girl to have the wisdom of a Socrates, the social awareness of a Martin Luther King, the vocabulary and diction of a college professor, and the grace and beauty of an Audrey Hepburn. On the other hand, putting adult lines in the mouth of a child is usually done for satire. Situation comedies often depend for their gags on having kids speak smart-alecky lines. Hearing wisecracks from a kid that no kid would ever think of makes us laugh, and that's why the formula works. In this case, however, it isn't a comedy, and the lines written for the child are not intended to be amusing.

Of course, no such alternate world exists, but what if it did? And what if such a girl turned up in the reality of a small southern town circa 1947? She would be as foreign and alien to that locality as if she had come from another universe, and in that sense becomes a kind of allegorical figure of redemption. It is presented as a "coming of age" film, but this is not just a story about the normal agonies of growing up. There is a "Twilight Zone" quality to the character of the girl. There are two boys who are "supposed" to be her age, and hence there is a sub-plot concerned with their feelings for her. But psycho-emotionally she is light-years more mature than they, and that is a point most reviewers seem to miss. It isn't so much about youth growing up over a case of first love, but a myth about a daughter of the gods sojourning among the mortals for a season.

Truman Capote, who wrote the original short-story from which this film was adapted, was something of a heretic, and it is tempting to speculate on what the screenwriter might have been thinking in regard to this character. For example: What if Jesus came back in 1947 in the form of a little girl? Wouldn't "that" be a surprise? Not that there is anything about the story to suggest such a "religious" quality, but the character of the girl is clearly mythical in comparison to her alleged contemporaries. She comes into town mysteriously, there are miraculous events associated with her actions, she is wise beyond her years and even the elders are astonished by her words. It is a different story, and a pretty good one as well.

It's hard to say what any deceased writer would do, but this very much alive viewer felt the movie was beautifully made with simple style and gentle awareness towards its subjects. I loved watching this movie and escaping into the world of Lilly Jane Bobbitt. After seeing this movie, I re-read the short story by Capote and enjoyed remembering what I had seen recreated by the producers and director. Hollywood thinks if you blow it up they'll come. But, I believe if you make a wonderful film, they'll not only come, but they will leave wanting more - and that's how I felt about Mark Medoff's movie "Children on Their Birthdays."

eh, no sex, no profanity, no violence without being too syrupy...that's a pretty good accomplishment. How in the hell did they get this thing funded? Although often overstated and painfully slow at times,I have to say that the young actors-particularly joe pichler and tania raymonde-made the movie emotionally charged,interesting and real. Amazingly enough as young as they are, they're carrying the movie. The adults' side stories although anchored by sheryll lee, chris mcdonald and tom arnold fall a little short and are pretty pointless and not so exciting. This period piece is surely worth seeing and you'll enjoy the cutest innocent love triangle- should I dare to say- you've ever seen set in a picturesque Alabama village of the late 40s during a steaming hot summer.