Movie Review

The Children of Huang Shi (2008)

Reviewed by Owen Gleiberman | May 23, 2008

Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman is a film critic for EW

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EW's GRADE

Details Limited Release: May 23, 2008; Rated: Unrated; Length: 125 Minutes; Genres: Drama, Historical; With: Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Image credit: Zhu Jialei

Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Chow Yun-Fat

A lot of emotions look good on Jonathan Rhys Meyers' sneery, overripe features, but compassion isn't one of them. In the historical dud The Children of Huang Shi, he plays a roving World War II journalist who sneaks into Nanking and glimpses the atrocities there. Yet the movie isn't interested in anything so pivotal. Instead, it traces our hero's Journey Toward Caring as he rescues 60 Chinese orphans. It's like Schindler's List crossed with The Sound of Music, and Roger Spottiswoode directs it in a stiff, lifeless, utterly dated style of international squareness. D

Originally posted May 23, 2008 Published in issue #994 May 30, 2008 Order article reprints

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