Noble

The inspirational film Noble is very enlightening. It helped me realize that a kid's life in America can be so much easier than a kid's life in other countries. It also inspired me to help others that are not as fortunate as I am. The movie is very well acted, in terms of creating believable character. Noble is a film that touched me emotionally and mentally and definitely put a new perspective on life.

The film is about an Irish woman named Christina Noble. The movie shows three parts of Christina's life - her childhood played by Gloria Curtis, her teens and twenties played by Sarah Greene and her midlife years played by Deirdre O 'Kane. Christina has a revelation through a dream that makes her to decide to help the homeless children in Vietnam to prevent their childhood from turning into an unfortunate childhood. Christina creates very strong bonds and connections with the people in Vietnam while on her crazy adventure of helping children.

The main character, Christina Noble has a very protective, brave and emotionally strong personality. I enjoyed how the director Stephen Bradley separates the film into three parts to show Christina's difficult life as a young child and into teens and twenties. When she gets older, she starts helping kids. One of the interesting part of film is the editing which is not sorted chronologically. Instead, it is all mixed together. For example, there might be a scene showing her in her teens and twenties. Then, it's followed with one from her childhood. The next scene might show her in middle age. The acting is very believable. In fact, at one point, I found myself in tears and, at another point, smiling. The film is like an emotional roller coaster. The cinematography is also very good. It is very good. I was very impressed and inspired.

I rate this film five out of five stars and recommend it for children age 12 to 18 because of some adult content and some inappropriate language.

Reviewed by Hailee H., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic. For more reviews by youth, go to kidsfirst dot org.

What no one's writing about so far is the artistry. This film is beautifully shot, directed, edited. That dreaded, grey, Irish bleak is made beautiful. Truly.

The writing is heartbreaking and the excellence of the timing makes even abuse bearable. This film entertains, is easy to watch, draws you in - all righteousness and do goodery aside. Don't be put off by the saintliness of the topic. The film is GOOD . . .

. . . til about the very last fifteen minutes and then it does drag just a little and get a tad do-goody just before the end.

But it's well worth it over-all.

If you're hesitating because: do you REALLY want to put yourself through all that (as was I), I'm writing this BECAUSE I was, and then I thought, oh, just take a look. And I did. And I was instantly surprised.

It's GOOD!

This is based on the real life of Christina Noble. She is an Irishwoman who hails from Dublin. The film chronicles her life in flashback form. But we start in Vietnam in 1989; the terrible wars are over but never forgotten I fear. The scars are everywhere including in the many street children, some of whom have been orphaned and others have trauma that has left them fending for themselves in a country that is trying to rebuild itself with scant resources.

Enter Christina and she immediately knows that she has to help, not so easy in a country that has had enough interference from foreigners. We also see what happened to her when she was growing up in Ireland and the abuse and suffering she had to endure. Some of her experiences would be enough to make the strongest give up, buy she seems made of very rare stuff indeed.

To say this is inspirational is an understatement and I stumbled on this as it stars Deidre O'Kane who played the mother in the great 'Moone Boy' series. She is simply superb in this as indeed are the entire cast. Special mention to Liam Cunningham who plays her alcoholic father and puts in a brutal but convincing performance. I had few expectations of this but once it got started I was blown away. This is one you will want to recommend to your friends.

While this is all sourced as being based on a true story, I almost find that hard to accept, simply because of the sheer number of hurdles involved, on top of the appropriate naming of the titular character, Christina Noble.

The film straddles two different arcs; on one hand is the early life of Christina, and all the hardships she faced, and it's incredibly bleak. It makes it all the more impressive to me with how bright and energetic a character Christina is by both actresses that play her as a child and a young woman, and it does feel like the same character the entire way. Christina's Irish upbringing also is somewhat familiar cinematically now as the state of Ireland's treatment of children was showcased recently in another true story, Philomena.

While her early life is simply, well, tragic, the other arc is of much more mixed tone, as she travels to Vietnam after her kids have grown up, now played by Deirdre O'Kane, and she does a great job as Christina, from the humour and tenderness to the strength and determination. She takes the role very naturally, and her portrayal of Christina is very warm, and I think part of this may be O'Kane's involvement with Christina Noble's charity beforehand, so I think her performance was strengthened by her personal investment. As she finds a calling helping the homeless children of Vietnam, and tries to figure out how to help, she serves as this great and uplifting protagonist, all the more impressive given that this is, again, actually a true story and really did happen, to at least some extent.

In Vietnam, the story isn't simply carried by O'Kane, but has a great set of supporting roles. Right off the bat, the employee at the hotel front desk that calls himself "Mr. Front Desk" or some such thing has a great role as this begrudgingly helpful curmudgeon, and almost all his lines were great, both in writing, and in performance (and I'm somewhat annoyed that I don't remember a name ever being used for him for me to give the actor proper due). The children in the film are great, and a few of them even have more involved roles, and they actually have all been, or still are, helped by Christina Noble's charity and that makes me all the more impressed by their involvement as well.

It would be very easy of me to criticise the overly dramatic nature of this film and it's lack of believability, but what's so impressive is that I don't think it actually did take that many liberties to make it the story it is, and as raw as the film is, it's genuine. It does make the film much more powerful, and the points it makes about being poor being a constant experience anywhere is a very salient one, and the way Christina steps up the challenges in Vietnam is extremely compelling. There's so many social elements on both small and large scales that this film touches upon, and that's quite impressive.

There's something I find very moving about a film with such a vibrant person as Christina Noble (as depicted, but apparently fairly accurate) that faces so many challenges with that strength.

Christina Noble is rebellious and loves to sing in the pubs. She had a tough upbringing in Ireland. Her mother died when she was young. Her father (Liam Cunningham) was a drunk. She was raised by abusive nuns. She leaves the orphanage and finds a friend in Joan (Ruth Negga). She gets raped and the nuns trick her out of the ensuing child. She marries an abusive husband and escapes with her children. She then has a vision of the ongoing Vietnam war. In 1989, she visits Ho Chi Minh City to fulfill her God given mission for the street kids. She battles pedophile, bureaucracy, and prejudice with the help of Madame Linh and businessman Gerry Shaw.

It's all very sincere and I dare not rate it any lower for the kids... For the Kids! Her life growing up in Ireland is rather interesting. There are intriguing actors. This is obviously a passion project for everybody. Despite some lesser elements, the movie holds together. The Vietnam story could use a bit more drama. It would have been helpful to have more professional help in the writing and directing.