KARATE KID, 2010

This is a feel-good movie, but it’s the best feel-good movie I’ve seen in years. It is well crafted, and kept my attention riveted. Jackie Chan plays an aging janitor with a personal tragedy and a kung fu past. He reluctantly takes on the task of preparing Jaden Smith (Will Smith’s son) to fight in a kung fu tournament as a way to prove himself and earn the respect of bullies at his school in China, where his mom’s job transfer lands him. The film presents the combative China, as well as the merciful one, represented by Chan and a girl schoolmate who likes Jaden. It gets past the romantic, distant, foreign China, to one where we see the ordinary grungy facts of daily life in working-class neighborhoods. Settings include gorgeous brick architecture gone seedy, great perspectives of the Great Wall, throngs of uniform kung fu players. Jaden is the type of snarky, self-indulgent kid I’d want to avoid at all costs, but even he could not destroy the uplifting timbre of the narrative. Despite some hard to believe passages, some too-quick learning by Javed, the movie is kept convincing, largely through Chan’s stellar and unusual performance, as well as the natural way the Chinese kids behave. The access to China is remarkable, and makes the inhabitants seem a lot like us. You may frequently need to wipe away the tears. I did.