Review of The Beautiful Country (2004) by Mike D — 02 Nov 2009

Like last year's Slumdog Millionare I found the fact that this film was so aesthetically beautiful in such contrast with what was actually being shown that the extreme struggles that the main character, Binh (Anh Thu) goes through seemed slightly diminished (in Sliumdog they were totally negated).

Strangly though, the last portion of this film, which takes place in America, dropped the more stylized look of the first 3/4 of the film for a more natural look. I'm not sure if director Hans Petter Moland was trying to suggest that life in America is somehow just as bad or worst then what we had seen up to that point.

Certainly Binh doesn't seem to have it much better once he arrives, but not much better is still a little better. And of course there's the fact that Binh succeeds in his mission and how we whether this constitutes a "happy ending" or not.

I'm not sure, I think I need to watch it again. I just want to add that the overall quality of the acting is very high with a really fine, understated performance by Nick Nolte in a small but pivitol role.