‘The Rocket’ soars over a legacy of war
“The Rocket,” a touching, fable-like drama about a 10-year-old boy believed to be cursed, is set in today’s Laos, but the damage done long ago by the Vietnam War is a constant undertone. The context deepens this coming-of-age story, which is amiable and energetic, and has a bit of a sentimental streak.
The impoverished residents of a remote Laotian village are being relocated to make way for a dam. Among them are young Ahlo (Sitthiphon Disamoe) and his father and grandmother. The old lady believes Ahlo is the source of all their bad luck because of the circumstances of his birth, which we see in the film’s opening.
As his family struggles to get by in a displacement camp, Ahlo befriends a bright girl (Loungnam Kaosainam) and her booze-addled uncle (Thep Phongam), a die-hard James Brown fan nicknamed Purple from the shabby suit he wears. We’ll learn that he wasn’t always an affable screwball. We’ll also learn that the countryside is full of “sleeping tigers,” unexploded bombs dropped during U.S. air raids.
Ahlo decides to enter a rocket festival, a reallife Laotian event in which amateurs risk their necks by building and launching homemade missiles. Winning the top prize will buy a better life for the boy’s family and prove that’s he not unlucky. The wacky uncle knows a thing or two about explosives.
“The Rocket’s” Australian director, Kim Mordaunt, films the handsome Laotian terrain in a way that establishes a powerful sense of place. He also struck gold in finding and casting young Disamoe, a onetime street kid whose charm and vitality make him an appealing hero.
The filmmaker isn’t above some tugging at the heartstrings, and a few facile moments don’t help the cause. But whenever it threatens to stall in feel-good land, “The Rocket” reminds us that the tragic Laotian past is no more escapable than the American bombs that seem to turn up everywhere.