Children on Their Birthdays

Amazon.com

Fans of film adaptations of Truman Capote's original fiction will delight in the familiar terrain of Southern nostalgia and wide-eyed yearning that defines Children on Their Birthdays. Based on a Capote story, this 2002 feature stars Joe Pichler as Billy Bob, a boy whose post-World War II horizons broaden considerably with the arrival of Lilly Jane (Tania Raymonde), a glistening idealist and would-be Hollywood starlet, in his Medda, Alabama, neighborhood. So exotic, erudite, and almost recklessly expansive is Lilly Jane that she lights a fire of progressive thought (or perhaps truer courtesy) in the habitually racist community, inspiring Billy Bob to outgrow his narrow boyhood. Typical of Capote, there is something of the Dying Swan about Lilly Jane, but her Mystery is genuine and affecting. Playwright Mark Medoff directs with conviction but little skill; the film is saved by pure heart and a solid cast, including Sheryl Lee and Christopher McDonald. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

cute capote.......2006-11-10

The film goes for cuteness. The kids in the movie are cute.
Whenever the makers of this film thought that rewriting the
Capote story would result in a cuter movie, they rewrote.
The ending of the movie changes Capote's story to a shocking
extent. I bought the movie because I thought it might be a
teaching tool; I think I should have been given more of a
warning about how much the story was simplified for filming.

Wonderful Movie.......2006-02-23

My husband and I loved this movie! It was wholesome, and it had such a nice nostalgic feel to it. The character Lily Jane was so nice to see, as she behaved like a true young lady, being courteous, well spoken, and thoughtful. I really loved this movie and recommend it to everyone.

FANTASTIC.......2004-11-09

It isn't everyday you can sit down with your children and watch a clean holsum movie. I can only imagine why anyone would want to put the actors and the movie down. If you have a child this is a movie that teaches children some common sense values.

Could hardly stop smiling!.......2004-10-24

Previous reviewers have given the readers an overview of the subject matter, many extraordinarily critical of the acting of one of the children. However, as an adult whose child is grown, I knew nothing of her background and this was the first time I'd seen her. I felt she played the CHARACTER she was portraying perfectly. I loved the movie, loved the courage that developed in her playmates, and highly recommend it as a sweet story from the 1960s. It's not rocket science, it's a sweet story about life in the south as it was, and features the determination of a little girl who doesn't see differences between people based on their skin color.

Wholly exasperating.......2004-08-23

The character Lily Jane Bobbit is an egocentric, extremely pretentious young insect. This character
is wholly exasperating. In this movie, she is very, very snobby and just likes to show off and flaunt herself to everyone, especially to boys.
She is extremely selfish, vain, narcissist, and very self-centered and wants the spotlight all to herself. She doesn't want other girls to get the attention and wants to overshadow them all. If another girl got the same attention she was getting from the townspeople in this movie, the repugnant Lily Jane Bobbit would have been jealous and would have turned malicious. In reality, a person like the fictional character Lily Jane Bobbit would most likely have narcissist personality disorder! I suggest reading about this disorder.
Parents, don't let your kids watch this shoddy sleazy flick!
This movie has a horrible influence on both children and adults. There are many better choices to watch than a film
filled with the character Lily Jane Bobbit's vicious venom. In that asinine scene of the movie when the atrocious fiend Lily Jane Bobbit arrived at the bus stop, the townspeople should have chased her away and sent her back to where she came from!
People who like this movie are just very, very shallow and they just liked the way the arrogant actress looked in the film- (she isn't good-looking without makeup anyway)and she would have looked very different without makeup anyway and she would have looked different if she had just worn regular modest clothes anyway! She wouldn't look the same without makeup, because she is not naturally beautiful. And with or without makeup, in my view, she's not that good-looking. (I'm sure that people would be very shocked, very aghast, repulsed, and nauseous if they saw her without her makeup!) And people shouldn't watch a movie just because they think the girl on the movie cover or movie poster is pretty. I think that people who enjoyed this garbage movie just wanted a cheap thrill. Ofcourse I don't recommend this garbage for anyone.

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