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 You
know, kids, sometimes there’s nothing wrong with a simple steak. A nice
sirloin devoid of sauces, spices and other frippery is a joy forever. I
admit to being preconditioned to twists and turns and unforeseen
intrigues particularly from independent movies. To make themselves
stand out, budding directors employ their cleverest manoeuvres to get
their projects noticed. Owl and the Sparrow, the first feature directed
by Stephane Gauger, is peculiar in its unabashed sentimentality and
romantic simplicity and is utterly refreshing for it.
Owl and Sparrow consists of
three storylines that meet in the middle. It begins in rural Vietnam,
where a little girl is scolded for a screw-up any bored small child
would make. We learn that Thuy is an orphan and the scolder is her
uncle who owns the bamboo factory where 10-year old Thuy works. Wounded
from the reprimand, Thuy packs her most precious belongings in a pink
Barbie Princess backpack and high-tails it to the big city.
Some kindly
Saigon urchins show Thuy the ropes of surviving on the streets, peddling
postcards and flowers while dodging the officials who routinely scour
the alleys to bring homeless kids to the orphanages they dread more than
life outside. At the same time that Thuy is leaving her unhappy life
behind, Hai is having his only joy forcibly pried away from him. As one
of the keepers in a dilapidated city zoo, Hai is suffering from a double
case of heartbreak, first when his fiancée gives him the gate, next when
city officials inform him they’ve decided to sell a baby elephant Hai
has raised from birth. The lonely pachyderm buff is plummeted into
depression at the thought of losing his only friend. In her own world
of loneliness, Lan is a lovely stewardess who’s been discreetly carrying
on an affair with a married man for ages. Lan has made herself an
emotional shut-in, self-sabotaging dates set up by mystified
acquaintances who can’t understand why such a beautiful lady is all
alone. Chance works mysteriously between the three characters with Thuy
as the tie sweetly binding them all. Both adults are mesmerised by
Thuy’s clear-eyed perception that forces each of them to break out of
their self-imposed purgatories and eventually Lan and Hai join together
to protect the little girl.
The grainy, faux-vérité
cinematography captures the backstreets of Saigon and the outlying
countryside. Many scenes reveal unwitting extras and real daily life in
the shooting locations, adding to the fly-on-the-wall feel of the
story. The naturalness of the performances only furthers the feeling of
intimacy. Pham Thi Han in her debut as Thuy, is the heart of the entire
enterprise. Han is so intuitive, unaffected and winning that her every
dubious pout gives the audience a reason to fret. Surely, such likeable
characters have to suffer some awful turn, don’t they? The prospects of
Thuy’s life back at the factory, uneducated, uninspired and unloved, is
harrowing enough. Owl and the Sparrow is character study at its gentlest
and most basic. I actually found it refreshing to be so enrapt by
the story of this little girl and the new family she finds, that my
natural cynicism didn’t stand a chance.
Simple? Yes. Predictable?
Uh-huh. Hypnotic, heartfelt and utterly charming? Definitely.
~ The Lady Miz Diva
January 16th, 2009
Owl and the Sparrow begins a
limited engagement in California. Catch it if you can.
January 16, 2009
Los Angeles -
Laemmle Sunset 5
Orange County -
Regal Garden Grove 16
Orange County -
Irvine Westpark 8
January 23, 2009
San Jose, CA - Camera
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