Born Into Brothels (1/2) R, 86 minutes, Liberty Hall
Winner of last year's Academy Award for Best Documentary, Born Into Brothels is the story of eight young children growing up in the red light district of Calcutta, India. Their condition leaves them little hope for the future. Most of the girls will become prostitutes, and the men drug-addicts. Yet even in the midst of this destitution and filth, the innocent charm of these children rings out.
The film not only documents the lives of these kids, but also allows the audience to see through their eyes. American filmmaker Zana Briski has been teaching these children photography, and armed with their own cameras, they give us a glimpse into their world. They take photos of everything, from their friends to dead dogs or drug dealers. The pictures are amazing, and Briski uses the sale of them to get the children into boarding schools. In these schools, the children will have a future, but many institutions will not accept a student from the red light district.
It is amazing to watch these children cope with suffering around them. Most have no father, and their mothers are abusive. Many of these parents don't want their daughters to leave for school anyway. They see their daughters as another source of income once they become sex workers. But these children find strength in each other and in their photography. At one point Gour, a 13 year old boy, is asked why he would like to be successful in his work. He says with a smile that he would like to save his friend Kochi from becoming a prostitute.
The indomitable optimism of these children is inspiring, but at the same time it is achingly painful to think of what will likely become of them. Briski is able to get many admitted into schools, but their mothers withdraw them after a few months. We never see what ultimately happens to these children, in part because that future is being written right now half a world away. As I left the theater I was faced with the realization that while I could leave this sad tale any time I wanted, that those children in Calcutta could never get away.
Will Lamborn
Finding Neverland Movie (☆☆☆☆)
DVD (☆☆☆)
The story of Peter Pan has been retold and remade countless times on stage and screen, sometimes with success (2003's Peter Pan, starring Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook) and sometimes with overblown disappointment (Steven Spielberg's Hook). Finding Neverland tells a different and fresh perspective of the Peter Pan story: how playwright J.M. Barrie created Peter Pan based on the inspiration of another family he grew to have close ties with.
Finding Neverland opens with Barrie (Johnny Depp, on some kind of roll) attending the opening of his latest and worst play. The day after, he goes to a local park with his dog and meets the widow Sylvia Davies (Kate Winslet, who had a great year of her own) and her four boys. Barrie is a grown-up with the imagination of a child, and the boys are instantly drawn to him, as is Barrie to the boys and their mother. He starts spending every afternoon with the boys playing games of
PG, 106 minutes.
cowboys and Indians, and pirates. It is from here that Barrie draws his inspiration for his next play about a boy who doesn't want to grow up and a group of children he whisks away to Neverland.
One of the cleverest techniques the filmmakers use is how they seamlessly cut between the pretend world Barrie can see and the real world, depending of the point of view the character has. Depp plays Barrie with wide eyes and boyish wonder, but with wisdom to go along with it and he totally owns his character. Almost every element of Finding Neverland works to perfection, from the acting to storytelling, and it is one of the best movies of last year. The DVD has some solid bonuses features, including commentary by the director and writers, deleted scenes, the usual making-of featurettes and outtakes.
—Jon Ralston