Thi Mai, rumbo a Vietnam

I watched this because I'd seen Dani Rovira and Carmen Machi in Spanish Affair (1 & 2), and I had high expectations that Thi Mai might blend this slightly more serious plot with just the right amount of heartwarming humor. I wasn't disappointed!

When her daughter dies just as she's been approved to adopt a young orphaned Vietnamese girl, Carmen travels there with friends hoping to adopt the child herself. Battling bureaucracy and lack of a common language, Carmen won't give up, determined to coax some ray of goodness from a sad beginning.

A lot of light films resolve big problems in ways that are ridiculous. Thi Mai does better than many, with a solution that mixes the unlikely with the credible. The scenery, both rural and urban, is fascinating to those of us who haven't been there. My only gripe is that Vietnamese dialog wasn't subtitled. Perhaps the director wanted us to feel the protagonists' limitations?

If you're ready for a gentle tug on your heartstrings, this is a movie well worth seeing.