Foreign Letters

After watching the first few minutes of this film, I was quite encouraged that it would turn out to be quite interesting and entertaining. Unfortunately, I turned out to be wrong.

The film seems to cover a very short period of time. It begins in summer (judging by how people are dressed) and ends in summer, all while school is in session.

It is basically, the story of a young (12-year-old) Israeli girl who moves to the US. She learns to speak English over the course of the film. She does not seem to change very much (other than learning to speak English) in the story.

The story is, as the summaries explain, the friendship between two non-native American girls in an American school.

I didn't feel there was anything particularly interesting about their story, or that it was told in a particularly interesting way. The promise of the first few minutes was, for me, never fulfilled.

This is a true story of 2 preteen children brought to America by their families. One came from Israel, the other from Vietnam. The actual author of this plays the mother of the child. It's main perspective is from hers, which while Israeli, has very little to do with religion. It shows their commonality in their isolation from the other school children in dress, language and culture. These children manage to accept each for what they are, something that most adults don't seem to know how to do. I found it very touching.

An incredibly touching and talented film. First of all, it will resonate with immigrants, especially their children. It acutely addresses the challenges of adaptation, assimilation, and adjustment in a new place.

The relationships between children, particularly their friendships, are complex in themselves.

It becomes even more difficult when a child finds themselves in a new group, at a new school, in a new country, without knowing the language at all-especially during their teenage years.

Only those who have experienced this personally can fully understand the scale of these challenges.

This film gives us the opportunity to look inside these situations, allowing us to see the baggage of difficult relationships from within.

The lessons learned from childhood friendships apply to friendships between adults. In this simple yet profound story are thought provoking issues about expectations, disappointment, and forgiveness. It's also about alienation, loneliness and the difficulty of assimilation. This is the kind of film that stays with you long after you've seen it. There are no special effects, no sex, no violence and yet there wasn't one moment where I wasn't fully involved and totally absorbed. I know the acting was good because there wasn't one second that I was aware that they were acting. This is an excellent movie to watch with children or grandchildren.

It's got some affecting moments and the kids are cute (indeed, maybe too much so) but this film is way too schmaltzy for me, with the Israeli music and songs cloyingly so, and the conflict too easily resolved. C plus.