Little Boy is full of paradoxes, and at
first I wasn’t sure what to think of it.
At times, it seemed like a story with a religious point of view
(Christian at first, but then Eastern beliefs were mixed in); at times, it
seemed to be admiring violence, but at other times, it seemed anti-war; and
numerous times it seemed to imply a causal connection between events that were
simply correlated in time.
Pepper
Busbee, aka “Little Boy” (Salvati) is a slight, meek child of around eight who
is small for his age and who is bullied by the heavy-set punk in town and his
lackeys. The refreshing part is
Pepper’s completely innocent, inquiring mind. He has an extremely close connection with his father who
plays with him and uses fantasy to build up his self-confidence and
self-esteem. Unfortunately, this
is during World War II, and the father is called away for military
service. In addition to Little
Boy, he leaves behind his wife Emma (Watson) and older son London
(Henrie). London isn’t really old
enough to manage his father’s business well, and he seems to have a chip on his
shoulder and have a weakness for drink, so things will not go smoothly in the
father’s absence. In addition, the
screenwriters (Director Alejandro Monteverde and Pepe Portillo) made Emma, the
mother, out to be a “weak Willie”, who seldom gives guidance or comfort or sets
limits when she needs to. To the
film’s discredit, the fully talented and skilled Watson is hung out to dry.
The
film deals with discrimination against other nationalities in the form of the
local Japanese man, Hashimoto (Tagawa), showing the cruel ways in which a small
town un-welcomes such a person in their midst. London is one of these; however, the priest (Wilkinson) has
subtle ways of protecting him, and unwittingly gets him and Little Boy
acquainted. Now, Hashimoto has a
friend and Little Boy has two father figures to stand in for his beloved dad, the
priest and the Japanese man.
Much
of the story is played out in Little Boy’s magical and religious efforts to
bring his father back through mind control and charitable tasks that are similar
to those in the Bible (e.g., give shelter to the homeless) that the priest has
given him to fulfill so that divine intervention might come into play. This ploy is challenged a bit by
Hashimoto who relies more on a Zen-like philosophy. A strong point of the film is juxtaposing these two points
of view of two friends without taking sides with either.
Little Boy is engaging with good
direction and skillful acting, and I especially appreciated its exemplifying
differing points of view without taking a clear stand. Yet, there was the irritating
experience of feeling like the filmmakers were coming down on the viewer too
heavily, as if the audience wouldn’t get the point or like a preacher who is trying
to convert the nonbeliever. It
also seemed unnecessary—and a little cheap—to insert a sleazy character like
Dr. Fox (James) who makes inappropriate advances on Emma when her husband is
away. Of course there are people
like that, but the interchanges do not seem to belong in this type of film.
Finally,
I concluded that the bottom line of Little
Boy was that small things and small people could have a huge impact on
those around them and that belief in oneself is essential for that to
occur. From that standpoint, it
seems like an uplifting story told something like a fairy tale, with “good” and
“bad” elements made fuzzy so that the listener has to think.
A sort of modern fairy tale set during WWII.
Grade:
C+ By
Donna R. Copeland
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