Review of Man Push Cart (2006) by Lowell U — 08 Feb 2008

I finished watching this movie last night and I don't know what to make of it. Maybe by the end of this review I will know what to rate it. It's such a lonely movie. It makes Castaway with Tom Hanks look like a party. This is a very lonely movie. Not depressingly so, but just...it just makes you sad.

It talks about a man named Ahmed who pushes one of those heavy carts we see in the city all the time where they sell breakfast, or lunch, or a newsstand, or a pretzel stand. Ahmed's is a breakfast cart. He pushes it himself on the streets in the early early hours of the morning and stays there by himself serving coffee and donuts to the people walking by. He has a tiny room that he stays in. Day in and day out. He's a man of VERY few words. One word answers. There is a sadness in him that you want to tell him to let out, because its killing him. And the even sadder part is that he has OPPORTUNITIES, he MEETS people that have the potential to help him in various ways, but he just can't get over the sadness that consumes him. This is the saddest part of the movie in itself.

It is a good movie? Well its so saddening that it makes me confused as to whether I like it or not. That might be why its got a low rating on Netflix, but it has a high rating on IAMB and was on a few critics lists in 2006. By the end of the movie, you're just shaking your head, so if that was the effect that the movie intended, then mission accomplished.

Lots of these movies are meant to show different people in different situations so that we better appreciate our own situation. I mean, no matter how bad I think it gets, at least I'm not pushing a big lunch cart by myself in Midtown Manhattan at 4:00 in the morning. There is a reason why he is sad, and its not a reason that I can relate to because its never happened to me and I hope to God that it doesn't happen to me or anyone for that matter, although its more common than you think. That's what keeps you from wanting to slap some sense into this guy and say, "Wake up man, there are people around you that LIKE you and can HELP you get out of where you are!!".

Man, just writing this review is depressing. I still don't know what to make of it. I definitely wouldn't want to see it again. But that's the thing, its not a bad movie, its a well-made movie that leaves a powerful impression on you. And that impression on you is sadness. So it does a really good job in making you sad. So then that makes it good....I think....