Broken Butterfly

Genre Type: Drama

MPAA Rating: NR

Starring: William Hurt, Pascale Bussières, Marc Donato

Director: Lea Pool

Runtime: 1:37

Reels: 2 ½

   In The Blue Butterfly Pete Carlton (Marc Donato) has months to live. Doctors have stopped chemotherapy and have given up hope for the 10-year-old boy with brain cancer. Carlton has accepted that he's about to die, but wants chance to see a blue morpho butterfly, which renowned entomologist Alan Osborne (William Hurt) describes as magical.

  Carlton begs Osborne, his hero, to take him to the rainforest to find the blue morpho.

   The reclusive insect expert eventually agrees, and Carlton and his mom Teresa (Pascale Bussières) and   Osborne set out on adventure to find the elusive butterfly.

  The film tells their story of searching for the blue morpho and is cinemagraphically beautiful. Much of the film was shot with a macro-lens so that audiences get close up views of insects found only in the rainforest.    

   But although the film is beautiful to watch the plot line runs a bit thin at times. The characters seem to grow and change in very predictable ways.  I felt the film ended too soon and that the story wasn't completely finished by the time the credits rolled. I also wish that the director had spent more time developing each of the characters so that I knew more about who they were and what motivated them, rather than just seeing the shell of a character - especially since this film is based on a true story.

   My only other problem was that the film is supposed to take place in the rainforest in Costa Rica. I know that the film was shot in Costa Rica, but I doubt that most of it was shot in the rainforest, except for the close-up bug shots. I've spent some time in the Costa Rican rainforest, and it looks very different from what was portrayed in the film. In Monte Verde, were I was, the forest is misty and almost magical, but it's also wet. The shots in this film were mostly of the jungle, which is much drier and the vegetation and animals that thrive there are very different from those in the rain forest.

   People who like to watch nature maybe better off watching National Geographic than renting this film. If though there are no other family features at the video store this one isn't a bad way to spend an evening.

Paige Lauren Deiner covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4425. You can reach her at (956) 683-4425.