Monday, June 28, 2004

A Tale of Two Tigers

TWO BROTHERS
First of all, you should know that I really wasn't interested in seeing this movie. It looked like a simple story watching cute tiger cubs go through some not very dangerous crises. However, St. Francis of Dallas (a.k.a. Hannah the animal lover) chose it and I'm in her debt because it was excellent.

This story of two tiger brothers who are separated from their parents and each other in captivity is a much more interesting and complex movie than I anticipated. It is not just a kid's film in my opinion. It was set in the 1930's in Thailand and showed a very realistic picture of how many people thought of animals. No actual brutality is shown but the implications led to several small children having to leave the film. Of course, there were sympathetic characters also. However it was VERY INTENSE. Late into the film I realized that the packed theater was very quiet (except for a few parents whispering explanations into kids' ears) and that was unusual because there were a ton of little kids there. The screen was bright and I could see all the faces. Everyone was intently watching. The difference was that many of the adults were showing signs of stress in how they were sitting. One dad in particular was repeatedly rubbing his face. I felt the same way. A couple of times I actually was reminding myself that this is a children's movie and therefore the happy ending would come ... naturally, it did.

This Decent Films review says most of what I felt much better than I could myself and is a more thorough look at the movie. I always have heard that The Bear by the same director is a great movie so now I'm going to have to rent it.

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