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A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story was extremely well-received in its hometown premiere at the Paramount Theatre at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. One can not help but be inspired by the struggle of someone like Lizzie Velasquez to overcome her disabilities and stand up for other kids who have been bullied. It is a remarkable journey and the film works fairly well as memoir of Lizzie's journey and a tribute to the love and devotion of her parents. Her personal story of overcoming adversity and her ability to turn her disability around and use it to help others as an activist is uplifting. It is also shameful that Republicans in the U.S. Congress have been blocking the passage of anti-bullying legislation in the name of small government and local control of schools.
While Lizzie's story is deeply inspiring the film is a little slow and repetitive. It falls into an emerging genre of anti-bullying films such as Bully. It may be in part, because it is designed to tell the story to young people rather than adults. There are a lot of simplistic clichés that don't really get at the causes of bullying or explore why young people become bullies or how adults can interdict and prevent bullying. This would have strengthened the film considerably. In short, Lizzie's personal story is stronger than the film meant to tell her story.
score 7/10
JustCuriosity 14 March 2015
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3201886/ |
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4-4-2021 11:20:50