charles1848

The Timothy Hutton character is a moral monster. The movie is about whether he can change, but it fails to engage you in this. For one thing, Hutton remains self-centered and haughty. Nothing to like nor learn from here. The Michelle Burke character is sweet enough (until a stupid plot twist at the end spoils it); she desperately needs a helpful relationship. That she would try for most of the movie to find it with the Hutton character is not at all convincing.

The portrayal of Hollywood in all its hypocrisy and twisting of culture to the lowest common denominator of attracting viewers is stale, adding nothing to what has become a Hollyood cliche of Hollywood.

The movie is about Parker's accomplishments as a wit, a poet, and a short story writer. Whether you find them handled well or badly, you should be aware that the movie omits a whole area of significant accomplishment: her work for social justice. She was one of the handful who launched the drive to organize the Writers Guild for screenwriters; she was arrested while marching in protest against the judicial murder of Sacco and Vanzetti; she went to Spain and reported on the fight against fascist Franco ... in a communist magazine, The New Masses; she bequeathed the rights to her work and her small estate to Martin Luther King, Jr. And the NAACP.

None of this is in the movie. It could have provided the conflict and theme. Parker could not pull herself out of a narrow cultural orbit despite being aware it was just that. She could not realize her talent (not just apply it) in the political movement to which she was obviously committed.

Parker wrote these words about herself, which illuminate Jonathan Swift just as perceptively: "I heard someone say, and so I said it too, that ridicule is the most effective weapon. I don't suppose I ever really believed it, but it was easy and comforting, and so I said it. Well, now I know. I know that there are things that never have been funny, and never will be. And I know that ridicule may be a shield, but it is not a weapon."

The movie is about the making of a hero. Yet we should notice, in the scenes from China and Spain, how many "little people" put so much labor into the cause, into making Bethune's vision a reality. With them in mind, the viewer can take the movie as a reflection on the interplay between a prominent individual and the masses.

It is a worthwhile movie to watch, indeed, but the scenes jump in time and place as though someone tossed script pages in the air then picked them up off the floor at random.

An article about the making of the movie in Canadian Film Encyclopedia adds lot of nuance about both Bethune and the various Canadian, Chinese, and French participants in the project.