#LittleBoyMovie

I should not have worn makeup to see this movie.

Let’s get one thing straight, here. I don’t cry in movies. I’m the girl that throws popcorn at the screen in “The Notebook.” I’m cheering for the iceberg in “Titanic.” “Gone With the Wind”? More like just plain, “Gone.” The only time I’ve felt like crying is when, as a devout Protestant girl, I watched movies like, “Fireproof” and “Facing the Giants,” because it was a moral obligation, not because I thought it was going to be any good. Even then, I’m crying because of a pain I feel deep inside myself, a pain that only bad movies makes me feel, compounded by realizing that the pain is caused by the cinematic representation of my faith. What makes it worse is recognizing that these movies are endorsed and lauded by critics within that faith. So when “Little Boy” received more than a few positive reviews from faith-based Catholics-only sources, I wanted to bawl my eyes out. “Oh no,” I thought, “Please, dear God, not another one!”

It wasn’t.

I actually cried in the movie theatre.

So, you know, that’s a big brownie point for this movie right there. In my head, everything else is just icing on the cake for this movie. In reality, I know, the tears are the bittersweet frosting on this cinematic delight.

“Little Boy,” written and directed by Alejandro Monteverde, is a story about familial love, faith, and the lengths one will go to prove one’s merit in either virtue. A small child, Pepper, thinks the world of his father, and it’s clear his father adores him, too. Sadly, in World War II era California, all is not well for little Pepper – literally. Pepper is very small for his age, and that worries his family. What worries Pepper, though, is the fact that either his older brother or his father will be off to war soon. To everyone’s dismay, Pepper’s father must go to fight the Japanese.

Pepper misses his father terribly, and all he wants is for his father to come safely home. In Mass, Pepper hears the priest tell the parable of the mustard seed, and Pepper gets it into his head that he can, in fact, with the help of faith and God, bring his father home. Meanwhile, 8-year-old Pepper discovers a Japanese man living outside the town. The town is outraged at the man’s existence, and Pepper is drawn into the dissention, all while simply trying to do what he can to bring his father home. It’s up to Pepper, a new and unexpected friend, and an ancient list from God to do just that.

I enjoyed “Little Boy” because of how simple the story was. It was downright predictable, to the point that I was shouting (in the theatre, of course – yes, I talk out loud at the theatre. Hush. No one else there seemed to mind!), “NO!!! NO!!! NO!!! DEAR GOD NO!!!” at a couple of points in the movie. But I felt that almost worked to the movie’s advantage. You see, the main character is 8-year-old Pepper. The movie doesn’t operate on logic; it operates on emotions, specifically Pepper’s emotions, all to enhance his narration of events. When he faces his ‘big bad’ bully, the music gets tense and dramatic, because that’s how kids feel when facing their bullies. It’s the biggest, baddest, scariest moment in their small world. But when bad news comes into town, the music is soft or missing altogether. When confronted with trauma or what adults consider to be ‘real’ problems, kids aren’t sure how to handle it. It’s just bad, and we all know it. To me, it didn’t matter that I knew what was going to happen. It felt like I was watching a bit of a real person’s life in their shoes. They just happened to be the shoes of a little boy, and that made a number of moments in this movie all the more delightful.

That actually turned into something I truly loved about this movie. The movie makes a big deal about the “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed” verse from Scripture, but I walked away thinking about another verse, “Unless you become like one of these little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Pepper’s faith does great things in this movie, and the adults try to reason it away. It was nature, it was science, it was chance – all things we say to ourselves in reality. We try to lean on our own understanding and say we’re standing up straight all too often. “Little Boy,” demonstrated the power of belief of little children and just how wonderful their world can be, if only you have faith.

Watching Jakob Salvati play Pepper charmed me to no end. He’s an adorable kid and it’s hard not to like him. Given that he acts so well, I don’t think you really can. The movie’s simple writing just hones in the childlike perspective. There’s a scene where Pepper has to do penance for something he did, and he’s sitting in the pew with the sister. “AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. Okay, now it’s your turn,” she says. “In Latin?” Pepper replies, and you can hear the hesitation and intimidation in his voice, especially knowing how many he has to say. You can feel him bearing the weight, and even though it’s not much, you know just how exasperating this is to a small child. The whole movie moves with the emotions of this little boy, and it’s delightful.

Another movie that did this very well was the short film, “Catch,” directed by David Henrie, who plays Pepper’s older brother London in this movie. I’ll be honest… I really did come to this movie just to see David Henrie. Sigh. David Henrie, my celebrity crush, the Hollywood hottie of my dreams… Oh, good grief, where was I? Anyway, from the interviews, video clips, and live chats with fans, I understand Henrie to be a pretty decent and likeable guy, and, yeah, I totally came to see “Little Boy” just to fangirl over Henrie. It was supposed to be a cute little PG-rated film for families, so I expected, of course, to see him basically repeat his older brother role that I came to know and love, that squeaky-clean good guy image I drool over so much… Clearly I haven’t seen Henrie in enough of his roles, because he blew that image out of the water in “Little Boy.” To be honest, London is an outright… Well, a total butt-wipe, to be polite, a complete 180 from Justin Russo of Disney fame. I can’t quite explain it, but there’s something charming about having your celebrity crush destroyed as that same person blows your mind with possibly the best performance you’ve ever seen them do. I love that actors who had their big breaks on the Disney channel feel the need to prove to the world that they’ve grown up by acting out with questionable life choices; Henrie just demonstrated his transition into adult roles by giving a truly great performance.

Now, London isn’t totally unsympathetic. You are made to understand his frustrations and the complications of the character. (It still wasn’t enough to stop me from wanting someone to beat the living daylights out of him.) He’s dark and edgy in ways that we all know we would be, too, if we were in his shoes. As a matter of fact, it’s not just Henrie’s performance. All the performances are remarkably deep in ways we know so well from real life. The priest is just trying to do his job, but it’s a tough job to take on. Pepper makes a friend, and that friend has struggles that we catch glimpses of and eventually come to fully understand. The mother goes on an emotional rollercoaster with a courage I’ve never seen before, trying to be strong for her sons while still shedding tears and dealing with her inner demons as well. The character that I think makes a stronger villain make me want to hate him, but I can even see some hesitation when he’s about to do something dastardly, as if the struggle between what he knows to be right and what he wants to do is weighing on him for a moment. Even the bully, who could just be a standard throw-away dunce-bucket kind of character, evokes sorrow at one point! The story might be simple, the writing and dialogue might be simple, but the characters are anything BUT simple. They are complex, REAL characters. You feel for them just as you would for friends. As a matter of fact, I remember going through something similar to Pepper’s situation when I was about his age. It could just be me, remembering what it’s like to pray for God to heal a dying friend, but I felt that the characters were real enough to care about. That’s what got me crying in this movie.

And, I realize I just cried in a faith-based movie. That’s truly never happened to me. Moreover, I am impressed and proud that the movie is such a Catholic movie. Protestant films and Protestantism in general tries to make such a distinction out of their messages, hoping it won’t get lost, that they sacrifice good writing, poetic moments, and excellent art all for the sake of hammering a point into your head. “Little Boy” has a number of positive messages in it, and none of them are hammered home. They’re told through simple moments, simple dialogue, and simple actions. As a convert to Catholicism, I’m frequently impressed by the simplicity of the faith of devout Catholics. Catholics don’t seem to need elegant thesis or impressive chunks of Scripture recitation to prove themselves faithful. They seem to just need a little gift from God, and that gift can come anywhere. It can come in a sunset, a bird, a flower… To Catholics, it seems that every single moment can come alive with the glory of God, like a child experiencing a moment in the world for the first time. “Little Boy” was full of such moments, and it made me proud to be a Catholic.

Aside from all that, the movie was well-shot and well-lit. There are tons of bits that are interesting or just really pretty to look at. The score was good. Of course, the acting was top-notch. The writing was a little clichéd, the story was really simple, but I’ve already said that it doesn’t distract from the overall goodness of the movie. Wholesome, wonderful movie. I will definitely be buying this when it comes out on DVD. Go see it, if you haven't already, while you still can. It's worth it.