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Fifteen year old Finn Earl (Anton
Yelchin) is about to spend summer doing field work for his anthropologist father for the first time as the latter studies the Yanomani (fierce people) of South America. However, his single mother, Liz (Diane Lane), a legitimate masseuse, ex-cocaine addict and alcoholic, seems to have picked the worst time to pick up her life and start living clean. After the police bust Finn for trying to secure drugs for Liz, she calls up one of her richest clients, Mr. Osborne (Donald Sutherland) -- who feels morally indebted to her -- and packs themselves off to New Jersey. Disappointed Finn tries to make the best of the situation and soon finds himself studying a very rich and powerful clan as his anthropologist father would. As he juxtaposes the Yanomani tribe's way of life with that of the Osborne clan, he goes through a series of coming of age rituals like befriending the Osborne grandson Bryce (Chris Evans), a getting intimate with granddaughter Maya (Kristen Stewart), learning to stand up against his mother and learning the world through the wisdom of "the chief" Osborne. However, in a tragic turn of events, he realizes that sometimes, despite breeding and civilization, certain behavior and the dominance of instinct over reason is sill prevalent.
The movie is brilliant and effective with very powerful performances from Lane, Sutherland and
Yelchin. The effort to document the behavioral differences and similarities existing in the very primitive and the very cultured pays off as compelling social satire.
The genius of the movie lies in crisp cut-to-cut of the Yanomano tribe's natural rituals and the Bysdale tribe's violent acts.
The technical aspects, especially the composition capturing the vast tranquility of the estate, the dramatic scoring and the well paced editing, come together to create an absorbing movie. We would not be surprised to see the movie raking in nominations and awards this year.
There are three points underscored in the movie that speaks of the innate nature of humankind
regardless of his social strata.
First, the strong maternal instinct which exists whether in a primitive tribe or the civilized society. Liz makes the effort to reform and straighten her life for her son despite being heavily addicted and carefree. A mother will put her child's welfare first, even at the expense of her own. Second, violence is not a natural inclination of humanity. Finn decided not to kill his attacker, even if he could out of vengeance. Anger is natural, however, as reasoning and feeling members of the animal kingdom, humans do not necessarily need to vent out their anger with the same violence done unto them. And lastly -- as Osborne puts it -- we can make something good thing come out of the bad thing done to us -- hope and the desire to move on are qualities possessed by the very psychologically and spiritually evolved people. They decide not to dwell on the past mistakes and tragedies but look forward to what they have learned and what they can do. The movie is worth every centavo however because of some sensitive themes like substance abuse and premarital affairs, it is recommended for mature viewers. (Editor's Note: CINEMA notes, however, that the supposedly fierce Yanomani tribe from South America speak in this movie the Pilipino language, a language that has more or less gained global status owing to the presence of eight million migrant Filipinos working abroad. While the movie in its disclaimer states that all characters in it are purely fictitious, CINEMA finds it nonetheless disturbing that our national language would be coming from the mouths of supposed savages. Imagine the confusion this might create in the mind of viewers, particularly non-Filipinos who may have disclaimer been familiar with our language but not with our culture! Can something be done to change this?)
(Date Reviewed: 11 August 2006)
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