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'The Beautiful Country': A testament to the human spirit

The immigrant journey to America, often a death-defying trek in search of a better life and perhaps a reunion with relatives, has long been the subject of gut-wrenching dramas with strong audience identification.

Sony Pictures Classics 'The Beautiful Country' B- The verdict: A Vietnamese refugee's downbeat journey to America, buoyed by coincidences. Director: Hans PetTer Moland Starring: Damien Nguyen, Bai Ling, Nick Nolte, Tim Roth, Anh Thu Run time: 126 minutes Release date: July 8, 2005 Rating: R for some language and a crude sexual reference. On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "The Beautiful Country"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

The details change, from the Irish fleeing famine to the Eastern Europeans escaping oppression to the outcast hero of The Beautiful Country, who yearns to find the father he never knew in a far-off land called Houston, Texas, but the brutal experiences are usually similar.

This film, written by Sabina Murray and based on her own experiences, remains downbeat for most of its length, yet is ultimately a testament to the human spirit. We root for Binh (first-time actor Damien Nguyen) — one of the mixed-race bui doi, which translates as "less than dust" — to survive his storm-soaked voyage in a rusty slave ship and reach his goal. We grow even more involved as he encounters menacing crew members, indifferent to their human cargo, who will be indentured servants in America. If they last the trip, as many do not.

The Beautiful Country is grim viewing, despite the gorgeous vistas of Binh's homeland and of his adopted nation, artfully captured by Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland and his cinematographer, Stuart Dreyburgh.

Binh's ability to find people is uncanny; he leaves his rural village for Saigon, clutching an old photo of his parents, and manages to find his mother with relative ease. Although she apparently abandoned him years ago, she embraces him now and secures him a job in the wealthy home where she works. But when he causes a fatal household accident, Binh is forced to flee the country, with his young half-brother in tow.

Their first stop is a Malaysian refugee camp, where Binh meets a Chinese prostitute named Ling (Bai Ling, Red Corner) who, improbably, takes a romantic shine to him and, even more improbably, offers to pay passage for all three to America. Off they go, in a ship captained by a snarling Tim Roth, who controls the refugees through intimidation. Eventually, they reach New York, elude the Coast Guard without incident, and Binh is forced into laboring as a busboy in Chinatown.

He escapes — too easily — and hitchhikes to Texas, where he tracks down his father, a now blind farmhand (crafty Nick Nolte). Slowly, they get to know one another, as they share their experiences in a cramped trailer. It is a sweet, simple resolution to a bitter odyssey, marred only by its several leaps of logic.