Review of Mia and the White Lion

"Mia et le lion blanc" is a French/German/South African co-production that is despite the French title a mostly English-language movie. The director is Gilles de Maistre and he was also partially in charge of the script of this 95-minute movie together with his wife Prune. A very experienced French filmmaker, even if mostly for the small screen recently, I must say I expected better quality here to be honest. Maybe French film buffs will recognize more familiar faces, but honestly the only one I knew was Melanie Laurent and I find it a bit sad she went from working with Tarantino to this. It is called a kids, more like a family movie, but to be honest, this is not a movie I would want my children to see. The first half is still somewhat fine, but the longer it goes the more absurd it becomes. Early on, they included a story about a girl living in South Africa with her parents and brother and she preferred to stay in London with her friends. That was okay. They gave it the right amount of elaboration until the homesickness vanishes and we see her clikc away the Skype call from her buddy. Also the character introduction to everybody wasn't as bad like with the girl really liking the lion cub, but not wanting anybody to see how she assimilates. There is one major weakness thhough, namely the spot in which the lions were held. Even if this film had been about the father selling them to honorable men, this was a joke. You can't keep huge predators in small areas like these whil saying you are a good person and treat them right as the film wanted to convince us. Then afterward, it all goes south and also not too slowly. The story line about how the girl is really close with the lion and cannot let go of his proximity felt as expected as it was shallow and predictable with these scenes of the lion scratching a tourist or the cringeworthy scene when the brother is slightly injured. Actually, I did feel kinda sorry for the brother, but for another reason, namely how he had really a lot of screen time, but hardly any material to work with. The parents had a little more, well the father you could say. Laurent was also completely wasted story-wise and like I said it felt painful to see her like this. Her only somewhat baity moment with her son towards the end could not save it. And as we are speaking about the last quarter of the film already, lets include several scenes here that felt really bad and unrealistic. One would be the way she is walking with the big fully grown lion through something like a shopping center with no police nearby. Police generally are once again displayed like idiots I must say. Next scene when she uses the lion to trick her father and eventually shoots him with a sedative in the leg. Didn't feel like she would do that. The perhaps weakest moment of them all was when she begs the lion to kill her. Like seriously? This scene did not make any sense whatsoever compared to everything we knew about the girl before that. Next scene would be secenral scenes actually, namely the long walk to the reservatory that felt pseudo epic. Same can be said about the father stepping in front of the lion in the really weak big emotional (at least that's what it should be) final scene towards the end. And yeah of course he walks exactly the path to where they cannot shoot him anymore. Oh my, with these letters and words you see on screen eventually, this film is sending a good message per definition. But the exact outcome is very disappointing and said message would have deserved a far better execution. Also as I watched the German dub version, I was not impressed by that, especially the line delivery from the voice actress of the girl / young woman that was really hitting all the wrong marks at times. But okay, that is not a problem of the original movie. Anyway, early on I would have given it a 3 out of 5, but the way the quality declined more and more to a pretty ridiculous level, I only give it a 2 out of 5 all in all. Looking back at it, yes it has a cute white lion cub, but as charming as it may be, it also contributes to the art of pseudo-depth and shallow entertainment that many will probably not see through. Good for them. Bad for everybody else. Not recommended.