Sold

Achingly sad and dismayingly familiar.

Colorful and visually pleasing, although there is nothing surprising in the rather predictable story.

The film does an excellent job of letting us inside Lakshmi's physical and emotional experience.

The rest of us will likely fall into one of two camps regarding this well-intentioned film: those who praise it for drawing attention to the suffering of helpless children, and those who find it sufficiently lacking in cinematic value to decide there are better ways of helping those kids than spending 90 minutes watching it.

All the characters are broadly sketched, though well acted. Beyond that, the innate tension of the subject matter — and the shamelessly manipulated emotions — carries the film to its uplifting ending.

It's unfortunate that Brown and company were unable to bring stronger narrative and filmmaking skills to this vital subject.

Sold is maudlin in a way that makes its audience, paradoxically, feel good, albeit superficially. A story of human trafficking should move us on a deeper, more uncomfortable level.