joelukephillips Reviews

Railway Children (2016)

Disturbing

[8/10 · 8 September 2022]

The heart-wrenching tale of young runaways in India. Every 5 minutes a runaway child arrives at a big city by train. This film could easily have been a documentary and is an unfortunately accurate depiction of life for these youngsters.

Every child has a story whether they have run away to escape abuse, poverty or neglect, they dream of a better life in the city but the cities are more dangerous than the lives they left behind.

This tells the tale of one such child 'Raju' who is left with little alternative but to join a street gang organised by an abusive Fagin type character. The kids forage through bins and empty trains. Most are addicted to sniffing glue.

The dangers are everywhere, whether it be rival gangs, drug dealers or paedophiles. Raju makes a new friend in Shivu and together they enlist the help of a former bully to try and strike out on their own. All appears to be going well until their boss finds out.

The story is slow-moving but compelling and there is an interesting twist I never saw coming.

On a footnote: The Railway Children of India is a charitable organisation that gives these kids temporary shelter whilst making efforts to reunite them with their parents.

Jet Boy (2001)

Nearly a good film

[5 September 2019]

It felt like the director was having trouble stitching together an over complicated turn of events. The flaws in the plot are evident from the beginning yet had they been simplified I feel it would have worked so much better.

A neglected / abused adolescent meets and cons his way into getting a lift off a mysterious stranger he suspects is a drug dealer. The stranger is coerced into giving the boy a lift. There then follows an unlikely turn of events re-uniting the stranger with an old flame and the boy - passing himself off as the stranger's son - befriends the woman's son.

Never having had a father figure the boy jealously guards his new 'mentor' and resorts to unconventional means to try and win him over as the movie becomes more plausible but still somewhat 'messy'. As with the opening scenes the fate of the protagonist is heart rending.

All that being said the director handles some very tricky issues very delicately although I would have preferred otherwise. These are real issues and there should be the 'shock factor', it would never have been a family film so maybe the delicacy with which issues were addressed detracts from, or dilutes the impact they have in real life.

Brendan Nadon was a little unconvincing in my opinion but playing the part of a 13 year old when 15 did give him a little more maturity which is true to life for those poor kids that have to grow up fast. The adult actors held it all together with some strong performances.

I still gave the movie 7 out of 10 because despite the obvious flaws the director handled the unenviable task of avoiding censorship when dealing with child abuse and prostitution.. The film was very engaging and well worth watching.