Noble (Stephen Bradley, 2014): USA

Reviewed by Filippa Hernius, Viewed at the Metro 4 Theatre 4, Santa Barbara.

Noble is one of the films on Santa Barbara film festival that I heard should be very good. The film is directed by a Irish man called Stephen Bradley. The film is based on a true persons life, Christina Noble. There are three different actresses that are playing Christina. One child-actress who is playing Christina when she was a child, a young Christina in the age of 17-25 and the “old” Christina who actually plays by the directors wife, Deirdre O’Kane. They all do such a good job!

Christina Noble didn’t have an easy childhood. She grew up with two or three siblings and her mum and dad. Christina was a great singer and often lit up the day for her family. They barely have money at all and when her mum died, her dad was so depressed and almost didn’t work at all. One day the father sent the children to nuns who were taking care of orphans. Christina didn’t like it at all.

One day she moved away from the nuns to see if she could fly with her own wings. She worked but was struggling with the money. One day she met a man, they fell in love and had kids. But that didn’t last forever, they broke up and she decided to go to Vietnam. That had been her dream for a very long time. Here began a big journey for Christina, trying to help orphans. But this wasn’t easy because of all the rights and wrongs in the Vietnamese society.

I like the fact that the story doesn’t go from the beginning until the end. We are actually jumping back and forth in the time which make certain things easier to understand. For example why she is doing such a work in Vietnam. She discover two small girls that are searching for food on the street and takes them under her protection. In the next scene, we see a very young Christina searching in the garbage with her sister herself.  It all makes sense that she wants to rescue these girls the way no one did to her.

It is a very well-made film. I liked the fact we got to experience the different years. I mean, it began in the 60s all the way until now, 2014. That’s a pretty cool development, big progress.

If you haven’t seen it,  you definitely should!  It makes you think a lot, and I also think it’s important to show what’s going on in the world. And I’m glad we can find some humanity out there. Christina is one of those people everyone wants to be, but there are few people that really are doing what she does. Credit to her!