Noble
(PG-13) tells the dramatic true story of Christina Noble, who overcomes a harsh
childhood in Ireland to give her life to helping abandoned children.
The film moves between scenes of Christina’s life growing
up in Ireland and her arrival in Vietnam in 1989, 14 years after the end of the
war. Different actors portray her as a child, as a young adult and as an older
adult, arriving in Ho Chi Minh City with only a few dollars and unsure why she
is even there. Years earlier, she has a dream about Vietnam, a country “she
wouldn’t be able to show you on a map,” and it sticks with her.
Christina grows up in poverty in Dublin. Her mother
dies when she’s young, and her father is an alcoholic who hits his wife. Christina
is a talented singer and shows great resilience. When her father agrees to have
her and her siblings removed from the home and sent to a Catholic orphanage,
she escapes briefly and goes to a pub and sings. Captured, she endures harsh
punishment from the nuns at the orphanage, which feels clichéd.
As a young adult, she is on her own and gets a job in
a factory, where she meets a woman who becomes a close friend. She survives a
gang rape (not shown), loses her job and is taken to a Catholic shelter. There
she gives birth to a boy, who is taken from her and given up for adoption.
Later, she marries, has three children and finally
leaves her abusive husband.
This litany of suffering is all back story to the
amazing work she does later. Despite her experiences, she retains a faith in
God. The film offers several scenes of her talking frankly to God, sometimes in
a church, sometimes on her bed. While the film doesn’t dwell on her religious
faith, it also doesn’t provide much explanation how she remains faithful, given
all that life—and the church—has done to her. We’re supposed to just accept
that this is how she is.
After she arrives in Vietnam, she notices children on
the street and begins caring for them. One day, she happens by an orphanage and
convinces the Vietnamese woman who runs it to let her work there.
Overcome by how many children are in need of care and
protection, particularly from sex traffickers, she eventually convinces donors
to give her funds, and she creates a ministry that has now reached hundreds of
thousands of children throughout Asia.
Despite the description above of Christina’s life
growing up, the film isn’t as hard-hitting as it might have been. It lacks the
gritty realism that a film with better production values or a different director
might have brought. This tamer approach, I imagine, is intentional, since the
film is geared to a more conservative audience.
And while it is geared toward presenting a message of
faith, it doesn’t feel heavy-handed. Christina is clearly a woman of faith,
though it’s not clear how that happened. Inarguably, however, hers is an
inspiring story.
Noble
is available on DVD.
