The Beautiful Country Is a very well made & interesting film of a Vietnamese lad (about 20 yrs old) & his search for his American father. I have no way of knowing how true this story may or may not be, This should not deter you from seeing this poignant drama.Nick Nolte is the American Father of the lad portrayed byDamien Nguyen.He is just nothing short of excellent. Nick Nolte again proves what a fine actor he is in a short but excellent portrayal.The only other name actor is Tim Roth as the Captain of the ship that takes our intrepid young hero to America. Tim Roth also gives another fine performance. His role like Nick Nolte's is small.The other members of the cast are unknowns (to me), but are very good. The cinematography is excellent as well as the other technical credits.This is a good movie & should be seen,Rating: *** (out of 4)--88 points (out of 100) IMDb 8 (out of 10)

Damien Nguyen is incredible in his first film role as a child with a Vietnamese mother and American father, who is trying to find out where he fits in the world. As a mixed race child, he is shunned by the Vietnamese and cannot even hide in a small village with his grandmother.He sets out on a journey to find his mother and, ultimately, his father in America. It is a long and hazardous trip. Along the way he is befriended by the incredibly beautiful Bail Ling and by Tim Roth. He eventually finds his father; played tenderly by Nick Nolte.It is a film for drama lovers. It moves slow, but that is necessary to develop the story. There is never a dead spot as the tapestry of his life is carefully woven. Loss, hardship, fear, embarrassment, love, sacrifice - they are all there and critically important to the story.The ending is surprising, tender, and fitting. It is a movie that will not disappoint.

Well worth seeing. It serves to give one a good understanding of the types of back stories, trials and travails that dispossessed immigrants coming to America might have experienced. I guess in some ways it could be similar to the story of many poor immigrants who came here in the past. Therefore it should have a universal appeal to American audiences. Next time we look at a first generation immigrant to this country we might have more of an appreciation of the humanity that we are encountering. Great performances all round, good screenplay, and thoughtfully directed. Bai Ling gives an excellent performance, and Damien Nguyen is outstanding in a first time lead role. He's in every scene and carries the entire picture... an incredible performance. One of the better movies of 2004.

Whoever wrote the script and dialogue did this movie a huge disfavor. Anytime that Binh uses English, it sounds terribly forced and phony. Had the director/storyteller/editors/writers caught this and called for perhaps just ad-libbing or improvisation or perhaps more rewrites etc from/for the actors the movie probably would've been good. As it is the story is interesting and the cinematography at times captivating. The love interest which could've lifted the movie is made to suffer and actually detracts from the movie with lines like "Have no 2000 dollars" and "Boat no go without Ling" or something to that effect. The actors basically are caught red-handed with conversations to spew out that unnecessarily dumb everything down and point to how ignorant and stereotyped the writers preconceived notions are of non-English Asian speakers. The movie unfortunately is something of a mixed bag with great performances from most despite the English mess.