A Third World movie which, despite denunciations of "whitey," exudes serenity rather than anger is bound to broaden its base of support; and in fact this pulling-oneself-up-by-one's-bootstraps story, about an orphan boy and "brilliant student" whose grandmother will do anything to ensure he doesn't end up alongside her in the cane fields, is such as to make even subscribers to Barron's and National Review feel comfortable. Told as it is from the child's point of view, the portrait of Martinique in the early Thirties is more reminiscence than thesis, and is thus replete with irrelevancies -- an unflattering term for a wealth of incident and character. This point of view excuses the episodic Lessons-of-Life structure of the thing, but not the molehill-sized emotional peaks and prairie-flat tone. A stiltedness in the acting, a sense that any right note is due in part to the law of averages and is sure to be followed by a clinker, doesn't help. Rather prettily photographed in antiqued coppery color, but in most other ways scrupulously "artless," the movie is often disarming, seldom really persuasive. With Garry Cadenat and Darling Legitimus; written and directed by Euzhan Palcy. (1984) — Duncan Shepherd
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