Confetti
China’s Ann Hu creates a drama about a mother and her dyslexic child which is admirably acted and perfectly cast.
For her third feature, the Chinese director Ann Hu has turned to material that derives from her own personal experiences so it is natural that she should be the writer too. Confetti tells a story that begins in China but then moves to America and it is the tale of a mother, Lan Chen (Zhu Zhu), who faces difficult choices when she discovers that her nine-year-old daughter, Mei Mei (Harmonie He), is dyslexic. Thomas (George Christopher), an American teacher working in China, is the one who identifies the child’s condition, but dyslexia is not officially recognised in that country. Finding no schooling of a kind that would help available there, Lan takes a bold decision. She decides to travel to New York with her child in order to find a specialist school for her and she does this even though she does not speak English and despite it not being possible for her husband (Li Yanan) to accompany her. She can, however, on arrival make contact with a fellow Chinese known to her, Shen Juan (Yi Liu), and, importantly, Thomas has put her in touch with a helpful friend of his, the writer Helen McCLellan (Amy Irving).
It would not be surprising for a film about dyslexia to be sympathetic but nevertheless hard going. In contrast to that, however, Hu has given us in Confetti a work of popular appeal even though the intention behind it is to promote knowledge of dyslexia and to encourage efforts that are designed to aid those who have it. Indeed, the British Dyslexia Association are supportive of the film which they feel truly represents the problems faced by those with dyslexia wherever in the world they may be.
By making this a tale centred on the close relationship between a mother and her child and by portraying the hazards that they have to overcome, Hu could easily have ended up with a film bathed in sentimentality. The pleasure of Confetti lies in the way that she manages to steer clear of that. In the last of the four chapters that make up this film, there are touches that carry a slightly fictional feel, but elsewhere this is admirably judged filmmaking. Hu’s relatively restrained approach helps (she never overuses the music score) and, while the storyline brings in something about Lan which she has concealed, this is handled in a way that avoids tipping into melodrama. But even more crucial here is the fact that the players, who also include Helen Slater as a sympathetic principal, are all extraordinarily good. Indeed, this is an example of a film that has been perfectly cast.
Despite this being a film which contains sections that are subtitled, the appeal of Confetti is less that of arthouse cinema than that of good commercial filmmaking. But that is no reason to view it condescendingly and the right audience will rightly find it a very satisfying experience. This film deserves to be a box-office success.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Zhu Zhu, Harmonie He, Amy Irving, Helen Slater, George Christopher, Li Yanan, Yi Liu, Ian Unterhan, Nikolai Tsankov, Robyn Payne, Meryl Jane Williams, Joe Holt, Kira Visser, Teresa Meza, Zhuo Shunguo.
Dir Ann Hu, Pro Zhuo Shunguo and Joshua A. Green, Screenplay Ann Hu, Ph Eric Giovon and Frederic Fasand, Pro Des Roxy Martinez, Ed Marie Pierre Renaud, Music Christopher Tin, Costumes Kim Matela.
Dragon Films/Jagman Productions-Miracle Comms.
86 mins. China. 2019. US Rel: 20 August 2021. UK Rel: 21 October 2022. Cert. U.
