No doubt a moving testament to the human spirit, and I look forward to seeing the movie. But it is more than a little creepy to once again have the local natives serve as a mere backdrop against which the elite project their suffering and redemption. But what are 300,000 lives in the face of a white family brought together for an impossible happy ending?
It is a true story though...so the happy ending isn't impossible. Also of the thousands who died in Thailand half really were Western tourists. It's acceptable to tell this story I think because it's a tightly focused tail about a family but they witness the devestation and therefore we do too. We're not supposed to be rooting for them as though it's a sports film we're supposed to be experiencing it as their foreign eyes did. There are infinite ways stories which deal with this tragedy can be told and framed. This is just one of them. It's a shame that the resources of Hollywood or even this Spanish made production aren't also directed towards telling the story from a Thai or other point of view though.
