The Blue Butterfly
I had walked by the DVD for The Blue Butterfly at Blockbuster's a couple times and didn't give renting it much thought. Honestly, I felt maybe a bit foolish renting a movie with a big blue butterfly on the cover and words like "sick child," "dreams and hopes" "based on a true story" and "journey to recovery" in the description. OK I am not sure if that is exactly what was written in the description but you get the picture. I was like, hmm I think I will skip this one. Plus although William Hurt is undoubtedly a decent actor, I feel like over the years I have seen one too many William Hurt movie. The fact that he was the main character here didn't exactly seem like a draw to watch the film.
However, out of the completely random need to find something new and totally different I finally got around to watching this movie on DVD this weekend. And I completely recommend this film virtually to anyone- little kid, adult, senior citizen, jaded teen, date movie, whatever. The Blue Butterfly is a great film and particularly does a good job walking the line in the most excellent fashion in that it is technically about a sick child but never cliche, overly sentimental or "tear-jerkerish."
Why would I want to see a film at all about a sick child you may be asking yourself? The Blue Butterfly is really more of a film about following dreams and the power of positive thinking especially in the area of curing illness. Considering all the real life stories of positive thinking curing illness, in fact, I am surprised their aren't more movies about this. (It would certainly be useful to give something for sick people to watch in bed while they are waiting to recover! ) The movie is about a young boy who is terminally who propositions a famous entomologist (played by William Hurt) to take him to the rainforest to catch a blue colored butterfly called the blue morpho.
Also the movie was shot in the Rainforest of Costa Rica and has excellent shots of amazing looking creatures and I believe serves as a great reminder of what amazing secrets lie within these areas. I was just reading today how its still somewhat of a mystery how so many unique species all congregate in specialized areas of the planet like the Rainforest. Also the film has fantastic performances by William Hurt, Pascale Bussières playing the child's mom and young actor (who I am sure we will see lots more from in the future) Marc Donato. who plays Pete Carlson to perfection. The cinematography in the films is quite good as well. Especially considering this film was reportedly made for less than 20 million dollars. You can tell the cast and crew were very much dedicated to the story and the meaning behind it and weren't at all "going through the motions." Its particularly nice when this kind of dedication shines through on the screen.
The movie was based on a true story and so is partial fact with lots of embellishments. Still not sure which part is fact and which is fiction exactly. Its probably better not to analyze this too much. Again, Marc Donato does an amazing job of playing the part of a person who actually existed and is completely believable in the role. Also as I mentioned, this movie seemed to be almost completely devoid of cliche. I expected to be a bit bored. But I was not bored and actually found it a bit hard to stop watching this movie. What a shock! The behind the scenes footage on the DVD were extensive and had the real life people who the movie was based on, which was definitely a cool thing to do.
The Blue Butterfly was directed by Swiss/Canadian based director Lea Pool who was garnered 12 Award wins and 20 nominations over the years. In fact, she has had a quite long career as this is the 13th film she has directed. I am not sure that this film got the exposure it deserved.
Grading
Story: A
Acting: A
Visuals: A
Originality/Innovation: B+
Enjoyability: B+ (probably as much as you can enjoy a movie about a sick child.)
DVD Extras: A (very interesting to have the people who the story was based on very much involved in the extras. Good planning.)
Overall: A
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