a history lesson. more profound than you expect. an admirable young actor. who creates his character with his all senses. a way. meets. and landscapes. and a terrible manner of experiences to give strange, dark and not ordinary meanings to the life. a film who escapes from the easy solutions temptation. and who transforms the viewer in part of a special experience about survive. it is not comfortable to define or write the right review about a film about pain and courage. about the force and the wisdom to survive. and this does it an useful lesson of history. not in ordinary way. but as the tool for understand the lives of many people from East, different ages and genres and pasts. for see. the struggle behind words. so, more than a film or a real case or a touching story. maybe, a remember. or warning.

Loved this film, though it does not stay close to the book. One thing I love about it is the mix of serious and humorous moments. This enables the viewer to see he is just a boy as well.The story touched my heart, since we see a boy who is lost because of everything that has been done to him. He trusts no-one, and yet he does.The ending was not surprising to me. Watching the start of the movie made clear to me how it would end. I loved the music. It is close to my personal taste.The boy was not very well cast I think, since he looks very British and is therefore obviously not Bulgarian. Also, his acting is not the best. All in all this makes the movie worth the watch, but not one to watch over and over again.

The movie definitely took some liberties. It is quite different. The similarities is basically the major thing. The striking the match plan is the same, as well where his bundle is and his trip to Denmark. Except that the bundle comes with soap, for which he asked for in the book, he starts in Bulgaria and travels to Salonica by hiding in a truck and he gets caught on a fence to add suspense. Also, he has to bring an envelope along with him. The sailor finds hims and gives him a life vest, but he has to trade his knife. He gets to land and discovers beauty, as in the book. He then goes into to town where he makes up the circus story for a baker. Then the baker tells him about St. Elizabeth and asks him to smile for bread. In the book, he was first asked to smile by the old British couple, who are not in the movie. Then, the baker calls in cop on him and he barely gets away. Something the screenwriter decided should happen. He also doesn't get his free bread. Then in a flashback, we find that Johannes is shot. Something else different. This is when David decides he should have a god. Not when he loses his compass though. Plus his choice is St. Elizabeth, no the god of still water ad green pastures. This completely eliminates the conversation with the priest which was an interesting part in the book. His first job he is given in the movie is by and old woman who wants him to deliver wine to a party. Which of course, never happened in the book. He then tries to buy stuff in a store but is shooed off, which never happened in the book either. It's here, I should mention that it keeps true to the book by showing him learning from Johannes. Then kind of ruins it by having him remember his mom and being brought here. That destroys David finding himself, as he already knows what happened. Finally, something in the book happens. He meets the American couple who need gas. He does not resent them though and deny their money, later finding it. He just takes it. Then the fight with Carlo happens and he then rescues Maria form the barn. Hear come more differences. He does not have a conversation right after and there is no Andrea. He does learn about the globe and silverware, as in the book. And when he's leaving, he contemplates taking soap, but that's it for similarities for now. He actually has a confrontation with the parents, instead of leaving a letter. He also leaves without knowledge of Maria. That is so crucial, because this is when David first voluntarily hugs somebody. Later on he never sees the newspaper ad or learns not to hate Carlo and writes the apology letter. Then another entirely made up scene comes. There's a riot in the street and David get locked up because an officer thought he threw a rock at him. He does manage to escape. He then does get a lift to his next destination. But, it's from the sailor he met, not the Italian lorre driver. He then meets the artist who paints him. They're driving to her house when they are stopped at the border where David is nearly found out. As you can see, the director obviously thought it needed more close calls. We also find out Sophie's last name is Anderson, not Bang. When they get her house, his strange eyes are mentioned. What seemed to be a major part of the book and David's character, they are mentioned once. Sophie has a dead son backstory and a cat, both not mentioned in the book. Unlike the book, he stays the night. He goes to a store with Sophie and finds out about his mom by a book, not by Sophie being good friends with her. Then, in a scene change, he is boarding an airplane to Denmark to see his mom. This COMPLETELY skips out his incident with the farmer. He also never meets his faithful companion King, who taught David dogs are smart, brave and trustworthy. It also skips his treacherous trip through Germany. He just flies straight to his mommy. The End. I liked the book "I Am David," but I like it even more now. Sometimes a lousy movie can enhance your reading experience. The book gives so much more insight from David's point of view and more meaningful storyline. The only big problem I had with the book was the ending, but the movie does even less for the ending. It's like they ran out of budget. The plot is just changed so much, it's barely and adaption. The book is far superior. Book rating: 7/10 Movie rating: 3.5 out of 10

The last portion of this film, with tender scenes between JOAN PLOWBRIGHT and BEN TIBBER, reminds me of a similar survival theme from '48's THE SEARCH, where the boy has to learn to trust adults again after brutal wartime separation from his mother. Ben Tibber's sensitive portrait of the boy and Joan Plowbright's equally moving portrayal of the motherly artist who takes him in, are the best things about I AM David.Before that, the story plods along at the beginning with a labor camp sequence where the boy is being given instructions by a man on how to escape and deliver a certain document to Denmark. Flashbacks during the course of the film fill us in on the harrowing events in the labor camp that led to the boy's desire to escape. His friend, Johannes (JAMES CAVIEZEL), it turns out, is a brave man who sacrifices his life for the boy, David.David keeps one step ahead of the authorities as he manages to escape, survives with what little money he has, rescues a young girl from playmates who tied her up in a burning barn and ends up for awhile enjoying family life in the Italian countryside. But all the while, he's hearing the warning voice of a man telling him: "Don't trust anyone." And he doesn't.He's not even sure of Sophie (JOAN PLOWBRIGHT) who takes him under her wing, a good-hearted woman whose young son died and assumes a motherly relationship with David. Their scenes together in the countryside are the most touching and believable moments in the whole story and lead towards a happy ending for the boy, who is reunited with his mother for the rather abrupt finale. The film's biggest assets are the natural performance of BEN TIBBER in the central role and the gorgeous color photography in natural outdoor settings.