Film Reviews by NC

I had hopes for this film as I like musicals, but this one didn't work for me. The voices were so processed as to be devoid of character, in fact when the two juvenile leads were sharing a song it took me a moment to work out that a different person had started singing. The whole thing seemed rushed, the characters weren't given time to develop and their tribulations left me strangely unaffected, though I am a weeper who has never made it through West Side Story without sobbing. If you like spectacle, and you're ok with the rather overwrought style of the songs, this might be for you.

I don’t normally write reviews, but I can see that this film has come in for a kicking.

It isn’t easy viewing, the subject-matter (poor parenting, poverty and hidden homelessness) is hard to take, and I spent the first 20 minutes wondering if I should switch the subtitles on, but this is a really powerful film.  The film centres around Moony, who must be about six and lives in a motel close to Disney World,  and her relationships with her friends and her young mother. The children run wild in the summer holidays, the mother resorts to increasingly desperate measures to keep the wolf from the door, and the only adult who really seems to be paying attention is the motel’s manager, played by Willem Dafoe. The actor who plays Moony is outstanding. There are moments of sheer joy even in these grim circumstances, and unless you choose to sit in judgement about the mother’s inadequacies and poor choices, the film is an emotional rollercoaster.