B-


Children on ther Birthdays is a decent, independent coming-of-age movie that is based on a short story by Truman Capote, but judging by what read, it only borrows some basic plot elements there. The cast of this film is pretty decent and it does have a good message to convey, but most of it is just too slight to work. The movie tries to make broad statements on many topics, including racism, growing up, war, unrequited love and so on. Thing is that for a slight movie like this one to tackle on so many important subjects at once..that just doesn't work.

The child actors are fine. The leading girl is played by the same actress as Alex in "Lost". I wish more backstory had been given to her and her mother as some of the questions just remain open at the end. The ending is pretty well-done, fitting and not very clichéd in a happy-ending-way. On the whole, however, the movie seems to have a split personality between being a coming-of-age story for kids and making statements on "bigger" subjects.