<p>We were disappointed – we felt that the very graphic, harsh depiction of Jamal’s life didn’t fit with the more romantic love story. (“We”= my daughter & me.) I would note that my d. says that depiction of poverty in India is very accurate – she spent the summer in New Delhi – but her telling me that was not at all reassuring to me. I’m glad I didn’t have some of those pictures of India in mind before she decided to spend a summer on her own there. </p>
<p>My d. really liked The Wrestler - she just raves about it.</p>
<p>I don’t think that what we’ve posted here thus far tells any more than what a newspaper summary or movie critic does. Do most posters who haven’t seen the move know the basic premise of it? If someone who hasnt seent he movie would chime in, that would be helpful.</p>
<p>How is it for a 13 year old? A friend told me that it was rated R just for a bit of language, but reading the posts, it sounds like there’s more.</p>
<p>We took our 13yo, and he was fine. In fact, he was the first one to say “I loved that movie!” I looked over at him a couple of times, and he was leaned forward in his seat, wide-eyed and smiling, totally engaged. There are intense scenes, especially early in the movie, and I found myself thinking, “Why did I bring my kid to?!” But we all thought it was a wonderful film in the end. PM me if you want to know the details; language wasn’t so bad, but there were adult situations.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t have a problem taking a 13-year-old to it. There’s some graphic violence and poverty, but nothing approaching most Hollywood action movies, although the “realistic” tone of the movie lends them perhaps more emotional impact than they have in action films. What there is, however, is plot elements involving exploitation and abuse of children and young teens. </p>
<p>I was very entertained by the movie, and have recommended it for weeks as a pretty sure bet. But in the end, I was a little disappointed with it. [Trying to be spoiler free.] While the young actors were sensational, those playing the 20-something romantic leads were a little lacking. And I very much disliked the passivity of the main female character, something that I thought sounded a very off note in the film’s basic project. (What I saw as the film’s basic project: Take a typical Bollywood plot, with equal measures of fantasy/moral didacticism/action, and film it to Western aesthetic tastes with far more realism than Bollywood permits. But Bollywood heroines are much more assertive than the main character here is, at least in the second half of the movie.)</p>
<p>Saw it last night and, frankly, my significant other and I both thought that it didn’t live up to the reviews and that many scenes – particularly during the first half of the film – were too intense, violent and disturbing: torture, intentional blinding of a child, immolation, etc. We agreed that the plot was interesting, but had we known more about the content of the film, we would have seen something else.</p>
<p>I took my on- the- mature- side 14 year old to see it after grilling family members about why it got the rating it did. I warned him to close his eyes during one scene as it might be disturbing and, in fact, I looked away for a few seconds. But he loved it and so did I and I thought it was completely fine for him. I think they need to completely revamp the rating system – I’ve seen PG13 movies that I thought were completely unacceptable for kids even over 13 and R movies that I think have a great deal of redeeming value and little to justify the rating.</p>
<p>I thought it was a great movie, and while some of it was disturbing and hard to watch, others parts were uplifting. During the early scene where the boys are being chased by the airport police, the music and laughter show joy of children in an environment where there is little joy. The innocence that gets lost.
One thing that hit me was the theme of the damage religion had done to India. Maybe I read too much into the movie, but I thought that Jamal’s story was somewhat of a metaphor for the modernization of India, and that religious conflict was a cause of Indian problems.</p>
<p>I saw this movie yesterday with my mother. We both really liked it. </p>
<p>If any of you get a chance, watch Trainspotting (it seems to be on TV fairly often). It’s an earlier Danny Boyle film about Scottish heroin addicts; very intense and disturbing but hard not to watch.</p>