The cumulative effect is more that of a handsomely crafted museum piece than a moving, emotional journey.
Overview
There was once a young girl named May who felt alienated from everyone around her. May is worried about her mother and father, whose marriage is on the rocks, and she yearns to return to the woods where her grandfather lives. One day, May befriends a boy as lonely as she is. When reality catches up, they run away to a beautiful world that belongs only to them. Both imaginatively escapist and heartbreakingly realistic, their journey speaks to kids and adults alike with the pain of solitude, the sorrow of loss, and the warmth of hope.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
Tom Shu-Yu Lin tackles death, divorce, loneliness and first love with the eye of a painter and the heart of a child.
A somewhat clunky family movie about childhood escapism, alternating a little too conveniently between the grim and the adorable.
[Lin] can't make up for the fact that the film wants to say more about the fragility of childhood than it's capable of communicating through its characters and their delicate, perpetually uncertain situations.
A whimsical coming-of-age tale that takes a common theme - growing pains - and transforms it through exquisitely rendered CG effects and a heartfelt storyline.
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