Movie Review: 'Holly' points a finger at Cambodia's child sex business
- From: Chim <ChimS1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:25:24 -0800 (PST)
Review: 'Holly' points a finger at Cambodia's child sex business
Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Holly: Drama. Starring Ron Livingston, Thuy Nguyen, Virginie Ledoyen
and Chris Penn. Directed by Guy Moshe. In English, Khmer and
Vietnamese with English subtitles. (R. 114 minutes. At Bay Area
theaters.)
"Holly" takes on a big subject, but it does so with a small story -
not just small in scope, which would have been a reasonable approach,
but small in narrative interest. The meager plot and the uncomplicated
characters collapse under the weight of director Guy Moshe's intention
to make a sprawling, dramatically effective film highlighting the
plight of child prostitutes in Cambodia.
The problem, which extends beyond Cambodia, is real. Girls are sold
into slavery by their starving rural families and taken to cities
where they live under the tyranny of some of the most evil people
imaginable. Little girls are apparently big money. Organized crime is
involved, and rescuing these children by buying them from their
captors only perpetuates the problem. The more money these monsters
get, the more girls they, in turn, can buy from impoverished families.
"Holly" serves a purpose in highlighting this tragedy, and to the
extent that it does, it's effective.
The movie starts vividly, with a disgraceful spectacle. A 12-year-old
girl, Holly (Thuy Nguyen), is trying to flee her captors, and grown
men are in pursuit. We see these thugs fanning out across a
marketplace, and finally they catch up with her and throw her into the
back of a truck. They return her to the witch who runs the brothel,
and Holly is locked into a room in preparation for the eventual
payday. The madam is intent on finding some pathetic, poor-excuse-for-
a-human-being Westerner to pay $1,000 to have sex with a virgin.
Not every Westerner in Cambodia is interested in little girls,
fortunately. Ron Livingston plays Patrick, an American who has lived
in the region for years, for reasons that aren't clear but probably
should be. Patrick gets by as a card player and seems to be floating
aimlessly through life, and when his motorcycle breaks down, he finds
himself having to stay overnight in the brothel where Holly works. He
gradually gets drawn in to her story.
This is essentially the beginning of "Holly," and yet even by this
point Moshe has exhausted a viewer's confidence and patience. If a
character has to walk across the street, Moshe will show the character
walking across the entire street, rather than have him begin to cross
and then cut to his getting there. The director's intention seems to
be to linger on the details of Cambodian village life, but even then
the lingering isn't pointed. Moshe doesn't direct us to notice this or
that element but rather expects us to luxuriate in the random elements
we're shown. The effect is that the movie feels stuck in mud.
The movie's chief virtue is its uncompromising honesty, notably in its
portrayal of Holly. Her relationship with Patrick isn't
sentimentalized in the usual American-movie way. Though only 12, she
is already damaged and is incapable of seeing Patrick as anything
other than a potential boyfriend or husband. She is confused when he
doesn't want "yum-yum" (a euphemism for one sex act) or "boom-boom" (a
euphemism for another). Even better is his reaction to her. Instead of
taking the moral high ground and assuring her that she has finally
found an adoptive parent, he is horrified and flummoxed and doesn't
quite know how to get through to her. "Holly" doesn't skirt the
barriers of cultural confusion or language, and it doesn't pretend
that the damage to this child can be easily reversed.
Livingston's portrayal as a flawed but pure-hearted guy just trying to
do the right thing strikes the right notes, but there's something
limited to the character as conceived. French actress Virginie
Ledoyen, as an anti-prostitution relief worker, has a lackluster role
as the mouthpiece of the filmmaker. And the late Chris Penn, as
Patrick's street-smart friend, shows up in a few scenes, long enough
to remind us that we lost a no-nonsense character actor of authority
and presence.
Ultimately, "Holly" might have been more effective as a documentary.
Dennis O'Rourke's "The Good Woman of Bangkok," about farm girls sold
into prostitution in Thailand, touched on many of these issues, and I
remember it as a near masterpiece. (Unfortunately, it's out of print
on VHS and is not yet on DVD.) Moshe, who co-wrote the script, has a
passion for this subject that's somehow diffused by his having to
express it through fictional characters.
-- Advisory: Disturbing sex talk involving underage girls, strong
language and violence.
To hear Mick LaSalle talk about movies, listen to his weekly podcast
at sfgate.com/podcasts.
E-mail Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.
- Prev by Date: Myanmar crisis tops talks between UN envoy and Cambodian Foreign Minister
- Next by Date: The Prem Rawat Foundation Brings Food and Water to Children in Cambodia
- Previous by thread: Myanmar crisis tops talks between UN envoy and Cambodian Foreign Minister
- Next by thread: The Prem Rawat Foundation Brings Food and Water to Children in Cambodia
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
|
