“The Beautiful Country” is about a young man in Vietnam, son of a Vietnamese mother and an American GI whom he has not seen since he was an infant, who decides that if he wants a life of his own, he has to go to America. The story of his journey unfolds like a really satisfying old-fashioned novel-a kind of combination “Oliver Twist” and something by James Michener.
The year is 1990. Binh (Damien Nguyen) is living in the countryside, where he works like a coolie for a young widow and her large family, who treat him like dirt because he has the face of “the Enemy.” Finally fed up, he goes to Saigon to find his mother, who is working as a maid in the house of a wealthy woman and her son. Binh goes to work for them, too, but he is not only abused himself, but has to stand by while the son of the house gropes his mother every chance he gets. Finally, Binh is the occasion of a freak accident in which the rich woman dies. He decides to head for America to find his father.
Binh’s journey is a true epic adventure, and I can see why most reviewers treat the film like an Asian “El Norte,” or some other immigration story. It is much more than that, though. Binh is not just trying to get to America-he is, in a very real sense, trying to get home, trying to reconnect with half of his genes. He is not so much looking for a new life as he is trying to get the only life he has underway.
“The Beautiful Country”-this is how Vietnamese think of America, and how the Americans describe Vietnam-is tremendously absorbing, harrowing, and ultimately uplifting. Even the minor characters are fascinating, and the main characters are indelibly etched on our memories.
The idea for the film started with Terence Malick (“Days of Heaven,” “Thin Red Line”), who produced, while the Norwegian Hans Petter Moland directed. It is rated R.
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