My Khmer Heart (2000) Reviews

• Excellent story, concise, truthful, but technically not the best

  jymlarin2002-04-15

  It is difficult to be mercilessly truthful about a piece of work with such moving content. Miss Geraldine Cox tells her own story, one of a woman adrift in the world, finding herself the "mother" of Cambodian orphans. And the director seems to stay very true to it -- there are no blatant incongruities in the narrative flow. The visuals of the picture (though the cinematography is limited in its variety) illuminate well Miss Cox's story. The music is a bit overplayed and dramatic for such a realistic and ultimately subtle presentation. Perhaps the haunting pipe melody would have been more appropriate if there had been sweeping pans of the Cambodian countryside, long shots of the children, slow-motion sequences... All in all, in terms of technical aspects, it is not the best documentary I've ever seen. However, it is a wonderfully compelling story, one I recommend to anyone. There is a subtlety borne of a very strong woman surviving unthinkable obstacles. There are moments of such blatant and difficult truth -- the extremes to which Geraldine must go with her first Cambodian child, the realities of loss in a war-torn country, and the apprehension for the future of her orphanage. These moments stand out, despite a mediocre canvas of filming, and touch on the complexity and adversity of Geraldine's Khmer heart.