Carol’s Journey (El Viaje de Carol) | Review

Charming Spanish film will touch your heart.

What every documentary special on the history channel has taught us about war is that the ultimate tragedies are the victims who are torn away from their loved-ones. Spanish director Imanol Uribe’s Carol’s Journey (Spanish title: El Viaje de Carol) is a portrait of human’s psychological defiance to assimilate to ideals of another way of thinking under the conditions of a civil war Spain. Told through the eyes of a young pre-teen girl we see how the pleasures of growing up are confronted by dealing with issues that no child should have to address.

Those around Carol keep telling her that she is ‘stubborn like her mother’. Used to the lifestyle associated to the Statue of Liberty the young protagonist of the film is no push over and her rebellious nature helps her adapt quickly to the new instability found in moving to a new home which is multiplied by the fact that she had to cross the Atlantic in order to find her new residence. Making new friends and a new way of life is tough enough but having to deal with the death of her mother and yearning for the return of her American solider father makes her growing up not the easiest of tasks. She finds support from the adults in her entourage but her real support system comes from a band of misfit boys equally of the same-age group. The boys who challenges begin and end with the word fairy are tough little mischievous characters-she learns to protect herself by emulating some of their behaviours. A puppy-love story develops between her and one of the boys- a miniature version of Jean-Marc Barr in Besson’s Le Grand Bleu. The more touching part comes from her most trusted ally-her mother’s former school-teacher and close sage friend who helps the little girl to better deal with the lose of her mother by carrying on the letter writing of her deceased mother to her separated by war husband. Uribe’s film gives a secondary status to the civil war- the protagonist is more affected by things that she can comes physically come to grips with and not the abstract ones such as the daily worry of the war which is nicely touched upon with a scene where the grandfather shows the position of the allied and enemy forces on a map of Spain using bottle caps of different colours to represent the current outlook.

Carol’s Journey is the sort of picture that Oscar-craving producers love to make-with a lush photography and film score add a romanticized feel to the countryside and rural village visuals that paint the picture. Like the fate of all pictures that play with similar emotionally toned themes of love and loss we have a drama that milks out an ending that goes for a full sentimental effect, however the poised screen presence and performance of this beautiful little girl with big eyes (reminded me another girl with big eyes in The Professional) might have the a better impact than the film’s conclusive details. I think her future trajectory in film might just follow a path a la Portman.

MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL

Rating 3 stars