Noble (Stephen Bradley, 2014): UK, Vietnam

Reviewed by Johanna Carlsson at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2014

Noble is a movie based on a true story. It is a strong movie about an incredibly generous woman who has done something admirable. The movie is directed by Stephen Bradley who is an Irish director. This is a movie that evokes a strong reaction in me and it made me think a lot. The reaction I got was that I wanted to do something to help poor and exposed people and that it is so beautiful that there are such incredible people as Christina Noble.

The movie is about Christina Noble (played by Deirdre O’Kane). Christina grew up in a poor family on Ireland. Christina’s mother died when Christina was very young and she and her siblings were left with a father that had problems with alcohol. He had so much trouble taking care of the children that they eventually were adopted away. Christina does not have an easy growing up and this is something that she Always has with her. Something Christina loved was to sing. She has an incredible voice and it is something she uses throughout the whole movie. One night, Christina has a dream about Vietnam. It is so strong that she decides to go there when she is a little bit older. She is coming there with a desire to help children and change their lives. And this is something Christina really does! She changes the lives for hundreds of thousands of people.

It is a fantastic story and I think it is incredible how one single person can make such huge differens. I really admire Christina Noble and I believe that it should be more people like her in our world. I liked how the movie jumped back and forth in time. You got to see how Christina had it when she was younger. There were three phases of Christina’s life, young, around 20 and adult. To see her history gave a bigger understanding why she did what she did. She has herself expired how it was to live like some of the children did and she felt a strong desire to help them. It was also interesting to see Christina’s development and how things around her affected her.

The film was well done and the actors were good. Sometimes I got the feeling that it was a little bit like a documentary and it was actually a good contribute to this feature movie. I liked how they used the camera to guide you through the environment. One example of this is a scene where Christina is traveling by car. First you see Christina sitting in the car. Next second you see the environment around her. It felt like I sat in the car and saw everything through Christina’s eyes which was believable done.

After the movie we got to meet the director and some of the actors. Something special about this movie was that it has only been 3-4 west countries who have been allowed to film in Vietnam the last 30 years. And Noble was one of them. The women who played Christina have met the real Christina Noble a couple of times. The movie was based on Christina’s two books and talking between Christina Noble and the actors and director. According to them was Christina pleased with the movie and how they told her story. And I think she has many reasons to be proud because this was such a good and fantastic story. A movie I really recommend everyone to see!