I Cannot Escape the Children

School's out for summer, but the kids continue to follow me wherever I go. Not literally - that would be creepy bordering on frightening, as they're not really kids so much as they're semi-adults that could easily knock me out with a single blow. You see, as a teacher, I get these weird withdrawal symptoms when the summer starts up where I feel I should constantly be guiding a discussion amongst my friends or I should be thinking of how I score in Rock Band in terms of grades and percentages ("My classroom, my rules! A 93% is an 'A'!"). I'm not complaining, it's actually kind of a nice reminder of everything I enjoy about teaching. So naturally, witnessing a barrage (read: two) of movies at the end of the school year with children as main characters, especially two films that are mostly aimed at an adult audience, was an interesting coincidence. More specifically, it got me to thinking about the precocious kid character, which both of these movies thankfully manage to avoid:

The Fall: A 6-year-old girl named Alexandria who has broken her arm and is recovering at a nearby hospital, and who along with the actress who plays her speaks not so much English, befriends a depressed movie stuntman who is recovering from his own on-the-job injury. Snooze alert times infinity, right? Well yes and no. This is basically just a frame story for director Tarsem (The Cell) to serve us a feast of visual pleasantries (filmed on a total of 24 different countries) as the depressed stuntman tells Alexandria an epic journey story about a troupe of multicultural bandits on a mission to kill an evil leader (not so subtly named Governor Odious) who has banished them all to an island. While the epic journey is more aesthetically stimulating with grandiose set pieces, bizarre costumes, stunning cinematography, and (thank everything that is holy) zero CGI special effects, the actual events are basically as surprising as watching dominos fall. Inversely, there is nothing really to catch the eye as the stuntman telling the story bonds with Alexandria, but their characters and the decisions they make (however minor) are much more dynamic and complex than the archetypes that fill up the space of his yarn.

Kid as main character: Here's where the movie excels from "decent but amazingly filmed" to "pretty solid and amazingly filmed." Some reviewers have called Alexandria precocious, and I really don't understand why other than that's a word critics like to use when talking about kids in movies. She's really just a little girl here - she sometimes says things and can't explain why she said it, she laughs at things for no reason, and she doesn't say anything remarkably wise for a 6-year-old. She's adorable and impressionable, not smarmy or all-knowing. Totally improved upon what could have made the movie an unbearable mess.

Son of Rambow: Definitely my favorite movie of the year thus far. Just gotta put that out there right away. A quiet and polite boy (Will) from a religious family befriends a loud and angry bully (Lee) from a neglectful family, finding a common bond in the visual arts. Doesn't sound too exciting or original, I know, but unlike The Fall, Son of Rambow takes its archetypes and rips them apart in ways I can't detail without giving all the best parts of the movie away. Plus the visual arts piece really does take the look and pace of the movie to a ridiculously entertaining level: Will loves to imagine and draw while Lee love to make bootleg copies of First Blood and imitate the violent parts, recording them on home video for posterity - both of which are perfectly rendered for the screen using animation and faux-home video footage. When Will sees First Blood for the first time, he starts having a recurring dream about saving his father (who he envisions as Rambow because his real father has died) from an evil scarecrow, so when he tells Lee about it, they start shooting their movie: "Son of Rambow." Several other characters become insightfully developed (highlights include Lee's controlling older brother played by Chuck Bass of Gossip Girl and a French exchange student who listens to and looks like The Cure and everyone at school fawns over) without forgetting to focus on the trials and tribulations the two boys go through.

Kid as main character: Once again, this movie would not have been as awesome as it was if the kids learned and accepted grand life lessons, or if they quipped about like they were being written by Dawson Leary. It's a comedy, so naturally some cleverness abounds, but nearly all of it is derived from situational humor and the characters' actions (without every becoming all-out slapstick either). It has the sleek photographic feel of an indie movie trying to be hip (its only detractor), but it makes up for this in spades by almost always using obtuse camera angles and bright colors to convey the emotion of its kid characters instead of having them spout unrealistic or cheesy lines to each other. All in all, the heartwarming comedy wins over the fantasy-drama if only because of pure entertainment value - Son of Rambow runs at a lightning pace but never hits you over the head with a sheer volume of jokes either (I'm looking at you, Simpsons Movie).

Now that we know writers and directors are capable of including non-precocious children characters in films, let's think back at the best and worst kid main characters in movies (keeping on track with movies aimed at a generally adult audience). What are your totes faves and totes least faves? Pan's Labyrinth comes to mind, but I definitely don't remember the girl as a character as much as I remember the incredible fantasy sequences and grisly war gore. What else?

This entry was posted by chris, on Thursday, June 12, 2008. You can leave your response.