Holly

There are so many problems with the world. To me is seems like each one is a mountain of work unto itself, not taking into account the rest of the other problems. This movie focuses on one such problem while still saying to itself and the audience "What can we do? Solving this problem is like a drop in the bucket"

The story is about a man named Patrick (Ron Livingston) who is living in Cambodia. He is a card player and does freelance management for a local slum lord, perfectly played by Chris Penn. He doesn't really care about all the problems that surround him because he is obviously haunted by something of his own. He by chance meets a young girl (Holly) who has been forced into prostitution and is fighting it tooth and nail. His kindness to her is immediately viewed by everyone as him being interested in being the one to have her first. A disgusting thought all around. She wants his help, but he doesn't have the money to buy her. When he is able to get the money together she has disappeared and the rest of the movie is trying to find her and save her.

But in this story there is no Knight in shining armor. No matter what he does, even if he does save her, what then? How can he get her out of the country, or care for her? He cant even take care of himself. As its put by one of the characters "As long as its not tragic, its happy" I don't think there is room for a happy ending within this story. This is just one small corner of the world, the problems we have everywhere else even seem to over shadow the 30,000 children in Cambodia alone who work as sex slaves. There is one scene where a five year old asks Patrick if he wants "yum yum," for cheap, she's to young for "boom boom" It made me want to throw up, and for that I found it very realistic.

I was impressed to learn that this was made with the money of two people who feel very strongly about the whole situation. The young girl in it, Thuy Nguyen (Holly) was great, she was very believable as the character she played, and its sick to think that there are girls like her right now doing these things. It was shot gritty and real, which fit, a lot of handheld, but not noticeably shaky.

Overall I really liked it and I think I can say its because of its mostly pessimistic view of the world, I'm not a pessimist, but I appreciate movies that try and shed truth and light on a matter. The last shot of the movie was incredible, it sent shivers down my spine, it was a perfect exclamation point to end the movie. 8/10 stars.

Director: Guy Moshe

Starring: Ron Livingston, Thuy Nguyen, Chris Penn, Virginie Ledoyen, Udo Kier