Asian Film Festival: Raspberry Magic

"Family films" have gotten kind of a bad name. Too many people think of them as sappy, overly sentimental movies that look at life through the rose-colored "Leave It To Beaver" glasses that were far more appropriate for another day. But real family life tends to be a bit messier than that, with screaming fights, arguments, and more... as well as the kind of love and caring for each other that eventually overcomes all of that. The better, more intelligent family movies don't shy away from that element of life, and as it happens, "Raspberry Magic", the story of a family from India now trying to make a home and a new life in America (which screened this week as part of Minnesota Film Arts' Asian Film Festival at the St. Anthony Main theatre in Minneapolis) is one of those more intelligent films.

Monica is an almost unnaturally intelligent 11-year old who is currently pouring enormous effort into her science project: a method of growing raspberries under near-impossible conditions that involves actual human touch to make them grow. But there are plenty of distractions from this work in the form of her parents' disintegrating marriage and near-constant fights; her father's insistence that mom doesn't support him enough and is too negative; mom's contention that dad is wasting his time with designing educational video games instead of his regular job and doesn't care enough about the family... and possibly some lingering problems adjusting to life in America. But Monica soldiers on, not least because there's more involved in her science project that just raspberries...

Who cares about an 11-year-old working on a science project about raspberries, right? That probably would have been my reaction too. But as it happens, we get enough flashbacks to happier family times on picnics and other gatherings... where raspberries played a major part of the proceedings... to realize that Monica associates them with those happier times, and her finding a method of growing them when and where they shouldn't grow is her attempt to restore her family to wholeness... and it's no coincidence that she's doing this by human touch, the one thing that her family seems to be missing more than anything else. It's actually a very subtle subtext, and not obvious right away...which is what makes it all the more effective, and adds a real undercurrent of emotion to scenes that otherwise might not have added up to much.

The movie isn't rated, but would probably be a PG or maybe PG-13, entirely because of some of the language that Monica's parents use in their arguments. I suppose some parents might find it objectionable, but the fact is that it's language that every kid knows and has probably heard their own parents use in THEIR arguments. It's important that the intensity of the anger and accusations in the fights be as real as those in real life in order to make it all the more clear the kind of power that forgiveness, caring and love has to overcome them. The movie clearly shows that power too, and I think that's what parents should concentrate on, because it shows both what family life can become without it, but also what it can be when we remember what's really important. The same people can be thoughtless jerks sometimes, and wonderful people other times... the important thing, of course, being to be the latter more often than the former.

"Raspberry Magic" also is an interesting portrait of relative newcomers to the U.S. and how they adjust to life in a very different land. How do you remain true to your cultural roots while at the same time being an American like all your neighbors? Monica's family seems to have found a balance, but when the glue that binds them together as a group seems to be weakening, some strains show in the other area as well, indicating that one way of making the adjustment is with the support of family and friends (something Monica grabs hold of ever tighter in her relationships with her school friends as her family looks like it might drift apart).

This is a movie that looks at some very tough issues through the frightened, often uncertain eyes of a child, and ultimately comes across as a very sweet, reassuring movie that is the very definition of charming. You will probably find yourself wishing that all families could ultimately have the strength and emotional foundation of Monica's. If yours does, you're very fortunate. And if you get a chance to see "Raspberry magic" one day, you will also be very fortunate. It's probably not the kind of movie you'd think it was at first glance, but it is the kind that could just give "family films" a good name again.