Little Boy movie review & film summary (2015)

This emotional disparity is emblematic of so much that’s wrong with Mexican director Alejandro Monteverde’s film, which he co-wrote with Pepe Portillo. It’s meant to be a tale of uplift for faith-based audiences, but instead wears viewers down with a heavy-handed narrative, an overbearing score and voiceover that spells out everything in cringe-inducing, folksy tones.

“Little Boy” takes place around the time of Pearl Harbor in the fictional, coastal California town of O’Hare. “Just like you see in postcards,” we’re told, as if we couldn’t recognize its idyllic quaintness for ourselves. The nostalgia is spread thick here like sugary mounds of frosting. Compared to most movies aimed at Christian viewers, though, this one at least has solid production values.

Pepper, who’s small for his age (hence the titular nickname), suffers merciless bullying from the bigger kids. His only friend is his father, James (an earnest and enthusiastic Michael Rapaport), who shares his love of comic books, movies and made-up adventures. 

But one day, James has to go off to war in place of his elder son, London (David Henrie), who’s stuck staying home with flat feet. Pepper is understandably devastated to see his father leave, but a sermon at the town’s church about the transformative power of faith inspires him. He visits the priest (Tom Wilkinson, managing to provide substance in just a few scenes), who gives him a to-do list of good deeds to help him bring his father back: feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, etc. It’s a ludicrous notion, of course.

Then he adds a task that sounds like the toughest of all to Pepper: befriend Mr. Hashimoto (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), an elderly Japanese man who has returned home to O’Hare after being released from an internment camp. Hashimoto has been the target of universal scorn during the war—“Little Boy” doesn’t shy away from the cruel racial epithets of the era—and even some vandalism. But, as a favor to his friend, the priest, he reluctantly agrees to spend time with this misfit kid.

The result is an overly feel-good take on the “The Karate Kid,” as the reclusive and misunderstood man becomes a father figure, mentor and protector to this bullied boy, who has a retro version of the Cobra Kai to contend with. Tagawa brings a quiet dignity to the role, which is really more of an idea than a fully fleshed-out character. In a similar waste of talent, Emily Watson gets little to do but worry and weep as James’ long-suffering wife.