Magnifico

Shamelessly press viewers' emotional buttons. But the film is so well-made and the performances so accomplished that it doesn't matter.

The very definition of sentimental overload. It's also impossible to resist.

Amiable, though much too long.

Modest but engaging Filipino tear-jerker.

If Michiko Yamamoto's screenplay overdoes Magnifico's holy-fool virtue to the point of hysteria, de los Reyes's fluid compositions, dead-on pacing, and knack for eliciting naturalistic performances make the story uncommonly cathartic.

A wholesome family movie with a moppet star and tearjerker ending, Magnifico milks the sentiment like an industrial dairy machine on overdrive.