While Smile never really lived up to its potential, it was still a feel-good, heart-warming film to watch. Katie, a spoiled teenager, growing up in Malibu, CA, finds that her biggest problems include whether or not to sleep with her boyfriend, and what to wear to prom. Her life is changed dramatically when she decides to volunteer at a hospital in China where children are brought in for surgery on facial deformities. There, she befriends a Chinese girl, Lin, who, coincidentally, has the same birthday as her. About two-thirds of this movie took place in California, focusing too much time on Katie’s “problems”. It was easy to see within the first ten minutes of the film that she was a typical American teenager from a wealthy family. More attention should have been focused on Katie’s trip to China. The last [and more interesting] part of the movie felt rushed, and hurried as the director finishes up with a series of stills that show Katie and Lin, post-surgery.
Rating: **