I watched this movie on DVD with my boyfriend and I had pretty low expectations. After seeing it I would say that as message movies go, this one is not bad. Mika Boorem is good and believable....it's a shame her career hasn't gone anywhere since this. I thought the locations were really interesting and intense. Sometimes I felt like it was a little heavy-handed and its earnestness kind of got in the way of what could have been a better story if it wasn't quite so predictable.
It does make you contemplate just how fortunate we are to grow up in a place where if you're born with cleft palate or something like that, it gets fixed and you can go about your life. I think the "Operation Smile" people are doing some very good work, and this movie is part of that effort and should be respected in a way that's different than the way you would think about simple "fun" movies.
It does make you contemplate just how fortunate we are to grow up in a place where if you're born with cleft palate or something like that, it gets fixed and you can go about your life. I think the "Operation Smile" people are doing some very good work, and this movie is part of that effort and should be respected in a way that's different than the way you would think about simple "fun" movies.