Extremely basic, cliched, contrived, and shallow. Message is simple and over done, the filmmaking is nothing special, the characters, plot, story, etc. Are underdeveloped. There are certainly some good moments and elements, like the race was genuinely intense, the child actors worked well, but apart from this movie being endearing, I have no idea how it could be so praised. The entire story has so many dumb and convenient moments. The family dynamic is underdeveloped, and so are all the characters. These kids seem like they're not able to communicate well, like why doesn't Ali explain the reason he's late? Im pretty sure the teachers would understand. I mean it may not work, but it could, which is the point, show it, otherwise Ali who gets good grades just seems dumb. When he cries to be in the race it definitely sends the wrong message for this kids movie. Simple words could solve so many of their issues, but they just sit there and make up extremely basic lies that nobody will believe or cry. Wow great characters! What about Ali's sister explaining the the girl that those might be her shoes? Then she might've gotten them back. I thought perhaps this was going to reflect on how the parents raised them, like the father wasn't able to communicate well either when he's to garden for the wealthy people, but nope, suddenly Ali comes to the rescue and does all the talking for him. I'm being a bit lenient considering they're children, but this just seemed like sloppy writing to me, especially considering how the storyline is haphazardly set up, going from inconvenience, to convenience, inconvenience, convenience, and so on. It's the simplest way to manipulate- I mean garner sympathy from the audience. It's also doesn't help that like the story being so choppy, it's not very well paced or edited either. Scenes just jump around, and it has one of the most sudden endings. I mean I guess it concluded, but there could've been a bit more of an aftermath. What happened to Ali playing football in the final game with his friend? This is just not a very good movie in any way, and I can't understand how anyone is praising this unless you're swept by the movie's emotions. If so then I guess it'll work for you, and it did have some pretty good emotional moments for me too but it's pretty easy to sympathize with children. When the main driving force of your movie's supposed greatness is the audience being able to sympathize with children, then I think you need make the rest of the movie stronger for those who might need more than that.
(4/10)
(4/10)