http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=vt8n0VydHys

I really liked this film too. Story was just so good, it leaves you saying, "But, wait...!" Rupinder Nagra was great. Very understated. And I liked the young girl in it as well. It has some really funny moments, too, but it doesn't try too hard and push for the laughs, they are just right. No wonder it was in the TOP 10 FILMS of 2007. I agree with that distinction. Apparently it made quite a splash at TIFF '07, although I missed it there, and am kicking myself. We should all be supporting Canadian movies like this to continue being made. Its being released in major cities this weekend on August 8th, like Toronto and Vancouver where they can count on me to be watching it.

There are three films called Amal. I am talking about the 2007 version. The 2004 version has the same plot and some of the same actors, but is much shorter. The 2005 version is completely unrelated, about Morocco.

The movie catches you over and over. You think you see yet another Hollywood cliché coming, but like a bullfighter the film changes at the last second to surprise you. Even the end leaves you sitting on the ground going what the? What just happened? It is quite a bit more subtle that you would expect from the almost fairy-tale way the story unfolds.

Amal himself is insipid and not very interesting. I had far more compassion for the villains and the desperate plights they had got themselves into.

The scene where mama prays a vehicle to life with the help of Ganesh was not funny, just insulting. The moral of the movie is God decides if you have good or bad fortune, so it is pointless to try to influence it. I did not enjoy having this idiotic religious philosophy pushed in my face repeatedly as highest virtue and wisdom. I not just the characters thought this way, the director was trying to sell it to the audience as well.

Amal does nothing but drive his motorised rickshaw and sleep. (You don't even see him eat, shop, bathe, change ...) He is scrupulously honest (refusing tips). He might as well be a robot for all the life and sophistication he has in him. Even though a number of terrible things happen to him, I was not particularly moved. You are supposed to be extremely impressed by his virtue. I just saw a guy with ADD.