Smile isn't a film that's likely to please many action movie watchers. Some may not have the patience needed to understand its fine intentions. It's actually a film with much to say - being essentially an introduction to the World Wide Doctors Gift fund. The beginning of the movie sets the scene perfectly - a kindly shanghai worker, perfectly played by Luoyong Wang ('Bruce Lee Story'93) finds an abandoned new born baby girl and takes her home to selflessly give the child a better chance for a decent life. This causes friction between his wife an son.On the same day in California USA another baby girl is born into the family of a Doctor and his wife. The parallel story that unfolds in the US tends to wander into story details that detract from the main theme - slowing the movie unnecessarily. Katie, the California girl who's very well played by Mika Boorem, has all she could want materialistically but she's not generally given to care for anyone other than herself. Enter one of her school teachers Mr Matthews, played by the interesting Sean Astin ('Lord Of The Rings' 1-2-3.). During the last school year Mr Mathews was involved in taking students to China to voluntarily participate in the medical charity group 'Operation Smile'. He's now attempting to recruit a new group to return this year. This eventually brings the two same-day-born girls together. Unfortunately, first time feature writer/director Jeffrey Krammer tends to gloss over some of the more important details - while other padded situations seem to receive a little more attention than they deserve. The movie would have played better being at least 20min shorter.A recipient of the prestigious American Cinematographers Award: Director of photography, Edward Pei (Panther '95) gives the film a truly striking visual treatment. For one reason or another the movie tends to offer far more believable performances during the Chinese sequences than the states. An interesting sequence has the Chinese 'dad' and adopted daughter out watching a Roy Rogers film projected at an outdoor mall! complete with loving shots of the 35mm (no less) projectors. What makes this unusual is that a scene like this takes a good deal of setting up, especially in the days of video projection. Seems Dale and Roy Rogers set up a grant/fund to keep family entertainment alive - hats off to them both! The wives don't shape-up all that well in this story, with Katie's mum the lovely Linda Hamilton (Dante's Peak '97) seeming to fly off the handle too easily and Danial's wife played by Jia Song showing no feelings for the little deformed orphan. While 'Smile' may have flaws, the only story to seriously consider is the 'Operation Smile' program's ability to bring people of other lands together in care, also offering the all important potential for personal growth. An understanding of one of life's most vital aspects--the ability to care for others as you would have them care for you-- Those looking for an examination of life-changing situations could enjoy this most.

"Smile" is an independent film from 2005 about an American girl and a Chinese girl born on the same day. Kate (Mika Boorem) lives the good life as a typical Southern California good-lookin' blond whereas Lin (Yi Ding) was discarded like trash as an infant by her parents because of a facial deformity. Thankfully, a man rescues the girl and sacrifices all to see to it that she has a quality life (Luoyong Wang). The two girls meet when Kate decides to take part in a program encouraged by her teacher Mr. Matthews (Sean Astin). The story's a cumulative creation based on thousands of true stories, including one of an American teen and Chinese teen. A picture of the two is featured at the end.The cinematography, locations, score/soundtrack, etc. are professional-level filmmaking and there are a few big names in the cast, like Linda Hamilton and Beau Bridges as Kate's parents, not to mention Astin. Although this is one of those tear-jerking inspirational dramas, it's also a coming-of-age flick. To be expected, the story goes back-and-forth between Kate and Lin. The latter's life is quite sad, except for her adoptive father, while the former's life plays out like the usual teenage-babe-in-high-school yarn. I don't mean that in a bad way because Kate's (melo)drama helps hook the viewer into the story and is one of the film's strengths. Another positive is that the filmmakers don't try to play your heart-strings too early. The whole story is a build-up to the revelation at the end and, I have to confess, it brought tears to both my wife and me.Unfortunately, you can tell that this is a low-budget movie in regards to the weak acting in several scenes. When a movie has the funds the filmmakers will take several shots of the same scene until they get it just right; and they'll kick axx if they have to in order to get the best out of the actors. Here you can tell that they set up scenes and shot them very quickly with the attitude of "That's good enough." Why? Because time is money and they didn't have the money to take all day to shoot one or two scenes, so they got the best they could on their limited budget. Another negative is that the story is too by-the-numbers. You're watching a scene and it feels like actors following the contrived words of a script rather than what they would do or say in real life, which ruins the movie's illusion of reality. If you can ignore these flaws, however, this is a worthwhile inspirational drama. Being shot in China, it gives Westerners a good spotlight into the lives of common people in that country.The film runs 107 minutes and was shot in Malibu, California, and Jingxi & Shanghai, China.GRADE: B-

It's funny. The first 3/4 of this film is pretty mediocre. But it works so well as a set-up for the very powerful last part of the film which just knocks you over! Really. I was watching most of the movie just trying to enjoy the Malibu and China scenery because the rest seemed, as another reviewer said, like an after-school special.I was not prepared to cry uncontrollably for the last 10 minutes straight. Watching the transformation of Katie before our eyes makes it all worthwhile. This girl (Mika Boorem) gives a very fine performance. Cheri Oteri is perfect for the part too and the father daughter (Luoyong Wang and Yi Ding) are great (although the English is a little unbelievable).I still don't know if the first part of the film was carefully crafted to achieve the end effect, but I guess it doesn't matter because I left feeling really good.

Yes, it hits you in the face with its message long before the action even starts. Yes, the dialog is terrible. Yes, it's melodramatic. But still... wait, I can't think of anything good to say."Smile" would be great for a young, prone-to-tears teenager, but for the rest of us, the sweetness will gag you, start to finish.It's got a great message, don't get me wrong, it just runs it into the ground a bit. Again, for younger audiences, this might be necessary.Still, I'd be a frigid cow if I didn't mention that it IS moving at times, but the director/writer person would reach more audiences if she learned a bit of subtlety, and let the story tell the story.