Movie review | ‘Little Boy’ offends some, doesn’t give viewer chance to think, feel about faith

‘Little Boy’ **1/2

I wanted to like “Little Boy,” but the faith-based-lite melodrama pushed me over the edge too soon, and the movie, not the message, never quite redeemed itself, despite excellent performances from a standout cast.

It’s easy to understand the visceral reaction by some critics who actually described the movie as “offensive,” which is a bit of hyperbolic melodrama in and of itself. Many film critics find they must write about faith-based movies in wide theatrical release, but also detest them at their core; kind of like Christian rock music.

Though some of it is quite good, some of it quite bad, but all of it forces you to consider God, and that’s an uncomfortable place for many.

The message of faith in “Little Boy” does not come with a Bible beating, and that’s a relief, though it does come with a $40 million budget, making it one the most expensive in the recent tide of movies invoking Christian principles.

“Offensive” is too harsh a word for a movie that stars a remarkable young actor, Jakob Salvati, who plays Pepper Busbee, an 8-year-old living in a small coastal community in California during World War II.

Pepper engages his faith, a challenge given him by the local priest, played by Tom Wilkerson, in an effort to bring his father, Michael Rappaport, home from war. That dramas of this ilk are often manipulative is to be expected, but here the child is manipulated, and that can be hard to watch. In fairness the script does deal with that very fact, but instead of being heartwarming the emotion is often over directed and stage-managed just out of reach.

“Little Boy” is disjointed at times, abrupt in its pacing, and over-reaching in its attempt to explain racism, God and nuclear war. Pepper, his older brother, and their peers, all hate the “Japs” and use the “J” word like the “N” word, too freely. But like all good American Christians they eventually redeem themselves, as you’d expect.

While the filmmaker’s intentions are well-meaning, the audience is never given the chance to come to its own conclusions about faith and hope; we’re told what to feel. The relationship between Pepper and an elderly Japanese-American fresh out of internment camp is a “Karate Kid” derivative, but that’s the least of this movie’s problems.

See it for the casting, especially for the precocious Salvati, and see it for a few interesting day-dreaming sequences, and have faith that that alone will be worth the price of admission.

This story was originally published May 11, 2015 at 4:20 AM with the headline "Movie review | ‘Little Boy’ offends some, doesn’t give viewer chance to think, feel about faith."