Movie-Smile

Smile (2005) very much had the pacing and acting of a Lifetime or Hallmark movie. That is not to say it was terrible or anything, it just was not that great. But I did love the point it was trying to make, and I'll get to that in just a bit.

Smile is about a Malibu teenager who is going through all the problems that spoiled girls her age go through. She is a pretty good kid though, with parents that are a wee bit too permissive and too cool. But Katie also has a teacher that is encouraging kids to get involved in a program to help other kids around the world with disfiguring birth defects...cleft palates, hare lips...things like that, and Katie (finally) does get involved.

This takes her to China as a volunteer, and takes her out of her own issues as she meets a girl who was born the same day she was and needs an operation to fix her face.

Yeah...a lot of over-drawn drama to get to the point of it all, but like I said, I liked the point. Look, I am not against cosmetic surgery. But we have all seen these people who spend tens of thousands of dollars in this quest to look perfect!

I will by-pass the whole concept of perfection for the moment, and whether that is even something worth seeking, but the money these people have spent, still does not make them feel better about themselves...they keep going back for more...it is never good enough. Perhaps, if they used those resources that they have, and helped these disfigured children, maybe their egos would have some fulfillment after all...maybe they need to see what a surgery, not for perfection, but for normalcy, can do for someone, how it can change their life.

Smile is not much of a movie, but it makes that point very well.