Movie- The Beautiful Country

The Beautiful Country (2004) is a moving film, dealing with a lot of things sub-textually, while not distracting, but being organically part of the plot.

The film's main character is Binh, living in the country with relatives, but an outcast in Vietnam, because he is half American, fathered during the Vietnam War. A young man now, Binh will be put out of his relative's house as she remarries, so he asks about his mother in Saigon. And as he finds some leads, he sets off with almost nothing to find her.

One of the sub-texts is that of the effects of war, not just the death, suffering and destruction that occur during the war, but the long term after effects, such as many children without fathers, rejected in their own land. War does not stop its destruction at the end of the fighting.

Binh finds his mother, and they are joyfully reunited, but the joy is short lived, as Binh cannot seem to fit in, and a tragedy occurs that sets him on an even longer journey, that of finding his father in America.

The journey is difficult with more tragedy in its wake. As Binh finds a woman to share his journey, and loses his small brother to illness on it. And the themes of this movie come out even more, the theme of assumptions vs. reality. The woman, played excellently by Ling Bai, should be considered a bad person. But Binh sees more, goes past the assumptions so many others have of her, and at least for a time, finds love.

Another place where theme and plot mesh perfectly is in the telling of the immigrant experience, which has not appreciably changed since my ancestors came over from Ireland and Italy. It is people seeking something better in this country, whether it is knowledge, or freedom or simply an economic opportunity. And in this, Binh's tale is timeless.

The theme of assumptions vs. reality come together again as Binh does find his father, played heart wrenchingly by Nick Nolte. Because all this time, both Binh and his mother thought the man she had wed just abandoned her, but the truth is far more tragic, and oh so human.

The Beautiful Country is an excellent film, where theme and plot overlie each perfectly, adding to each other in an intrinsic way.
It is a film that plays out in your head long after you have watched it. It is sad and warm and a lovingly crafted movie.