Review of The World's Fastest Indian (2005) by Tim L — 20 Feb 2011

Cinema has conditioned me to not enjoy films like The World's Fastest Indian. I've been taught that when things seem to be going nicely for a likeable character, I should expect some major melodrama to be just around the corner. So, watching Hopkins' sweet old man place himself in life-threatening situations, surrounded by oddball people, stressed me out, as I waited for something awful to befall him. I can't remember ever feeling so protective over someone so obviously more capable than I am.

I won't ruin what happens (I was glad to not know the true story that the film is based on), but I will say that this is a beautiful, life-affirming journey, in which the oddball and the misfit are celebrated, and the villains aren't really villains at all, but well-meaning people like you and me.