Smile

I didn't hear about this movie at all. I was walking through Movie Gallery and came across this movie. I initially noticed Sean Astin's name so I picked it up. I then realized that the movie was based on OPERATION SMILE. I had to rent the movie then. Operation Smile is an organization that goes to third world countries and does facial reconstructive surgery on children. I personally think this is amazing. The movie captured the heart-rending pain that physically deformed children go through. It captured the love the parents had for those children and the sacrifices that they go through. It also captured Katie's journey from selfish spoiled little brat to someone who thinks about somebody else for a change. It showed her compassion bloom and it was a very pleasant movie to watch. I heartily recommend it.

This movie isn't about the character makeover that Katie has or the facial makeover that Lindsay has. I kept on wondering why they would call the movie Smile ! I had my answer. "Smile" is about the ability to genuinely smile, to smile for something that doesn't go through you, to smile with mushy emotions inside, to smile with tears in your eyes, to smile at the happiness of someone besides yourself ! Its what you would do while you watched "Smile". They have also probably chosen the perfect tag-line for this movie. Watch the movie and you will find out why !

I give this movie all its rating because of Lindsay and her dad and everything that revolves around them. Very very touching to watch a father sacrifice everything for the love of an adopted child. Cinematography too was excellent. The scenic countryside holding hands with the pleasant music score adds to the feel good touch of brilliantly done scenes such as the father and child dancing etc.

The initial chunk of the movie is a lil overdone potpourri of characters. Character development was essential, but it spills over into more of a striking contrasting difference between the lives of two girls born on the same day. It puts forth a wrong perspective which could well and truly stand in line with the archaic stereotype of lives in developing countries. They could also have gone easy on the last set of photo stills to don the movie screen. It tends to give a lil bit of the "true story" thing away !

Given its pros and cons, I would certainly recommend this movie even if its a date movie !

Two redeeming qualities of this film were the cinemaphotography and a storyline that was hard to resist. However, the script, the direction, and some scenes, were just awful. I kept asking myself why such a good cast would have produced such a bad movie. My only conclusion was that these actors must believe in the charity which underlies the plot of the movie, but knew the movie was filled with flaws.

This film could have been so much better, and reached a larger audience accordingly. What makes me think this is that with all of the problems of the film, some scenes being painfully bad to watch, I still wanted to see how the obvious conclusion would resolve itself.

"Smile" is an independent film from 2005 about an American girl and a Chinese girl born on the same day. Kate (Mika Boorem) lives the good life as a typical Southern California good-lookin' blond whereas Lin (Yi Ding) was discarded like trash as an infant by her parents because of a facial deformity. Thankfully, a man rescues the girl and sacrifices all to see to it that she has a quality life (Luoyong Wang). The two girls meet when Kate decides to take part in a program encouraged by her teacher Mr. Matthews (Sean Astin). The story's a cumulative creation based on thousands of true stories, including one of an American teen and Chinese teen. A picture of the two is featured at the end.

The cinematography, locations, score/soundtrack, etc. are professional-level filmmaking and there are a few big names in the cast, like Linda Hamilton and Beau Bridges as Kate's parents, not to mention Astin. Although this is one of those tear-jerking inspirational dramas, it's also a coming-of-age flick. To be expected, the story goes back-and-forth between Kate and Lin. The latter's life is quite sad, except for her adoptive father, while the former's life plays out like the usual teenage-babe-in-high-school yarn. I don't mean that in a bad way because Kate's (melo)drama helps hook the viewer into the story and is one of the film's strengths. Another positive is that the filmmakers don't try to play your heart-strings too early. The whole story is a build-up to the revelation at the end and, I have to confess, it brought tears to both my wife and me.

Unfortunately, you can tell that this is a low-budget movie in regards to the weak acting in several scenes. When a movie has the funds the filmmakers will take several shots of the same scene until they get it just right; and they'll kick axx if they have to in order to get the best out of the actors. Here you can tell that they set up scenes and shot them very quickly with the attitude of "That's good enough." Why? Because time is money and they didn't have the money to take all day to shoot one or two scenes, so they got the best they could on their limited budget. Another negative is that the story is too by-the-numbers. You're watching a scene and it feels like actors following the contrived words of a script rather than what they would do or say in real life, which ruins the movie's illusion of reality. If you can ignore these flaws, however, this is a worthwhile inspirational drama. Being shot in China, it gives Westerners a good spotlight into the lives of common people in that country.

The film runs 107 minutes and was shot in Malibu, California, and Jingxi & Shanghai, China.

GRADE: B-

SMILE is one of those Op-Ed moments on CNN that can be told with poignant dignity in 10 - 15 minutes and make a significant impact. The trouble with SMILE, the motion picture, is that it stretches this idea into 107 padded minutes, incorporating far more sitcom TV dialog about wealthy families with strident children looking for ways to escape uninspiring parental role models with teenage sex life and outside causes. It takes so long for this movie to get going that it loses the viewer.

The strong elements lie in the concept of the parallel of two girls born on the same day, one to the wealthy Malibu family with everything but concord, an the other left as an unwanted deserted orphan because of a facial deformity, salvaged by a caring worker who raises her as his own. The stories run parallel through the teen years when the Western girl seeks meaning to life by joining a humanitarian medical group whose efforts are directed toward offering the Eastern girl a chance at a normal appearance. The comparison of the lives of the two girls and their disparate families is tender and meaningful and that alone is worth the effort to tell this tale.

The actors are very good for the most part - Sean Astin in his most mature role to date, Mika Boorem as the Western girl and Yi Ding as the Eastern girl, and Beau Bridges and Luoyong Wang as the apposing fathers, Linda Hamilton as a rather tiresome mother, and some good young actors in supporting parts. The cinematography in China is very lovely but there is little tie in with the California counterpart. Jeffrey Kramer directs with less hold on pacing than on commitment to a worthwhile tale begging for brevity. Grady Harp