The Children of Noisy Village

Director Lasse Hallstrom's My Life as a Dog (1985) stands as one of the most extraordinary films ever made about the complicated interior life of a child. What drew him to this shallow, insipid extended vignette about sweet but totally vacuous children spending their long — very long — summer vacation in a Swedish village remains a complete mystery. The Children of Noisy Village is so relentlessly and horribly happy, it plays like some kind of denial festival. What's worse, it has been obviously and painfully dubbed. Who is this film for? Extremely dull or bored children? It would be a kindness to think so. D