Christina Noble is an Irish woman known as “Mama Tina” to thousands of Vietnamese children and their families. Her own childhood was one of poverty, abandonment, loss, and hardship, but her resilience and determination led her to give children half a world away the help she never had herself. This film tells her improbable story and conveys her endless charm, her engaging spirit, and the extraordinary difference that one person can make in the world.
Noble is played by three different actresses to show us her life as a child, a teenager and young mother, and as a woman in her 40’s, her children grown, who follows a dream to go to Vietnam and help the homeless children of Vietnam. We first see her skipping school at age 10 to sing Doris Day songs in a bar (played by Gloria Cramer Curtis), and running from the truant officer. Her mother dies and her father all but abandons the children who are eventually split up. Christina ends up at a convent school. As a teenager, she is played by the radiant Sarah Greene (“Penny Dreadful”), and undergoes a second cruel abandonment by her father, a gang rape, a pregnancy, and then is forced to give up her child through the same kind of forced adoption program documented in “Philomena.” She finally falls in love, gets married, and has more children, but her husband is cruel and abusive.
The story moves back and forth in time to give us a greater understanding of Christina’s courage and of her faith in God, in her purpose, and in her ability to make something better out of what she has. Irish star and stand-up comedian Deirdre O’Kane (“Moone Boy”) gives a smashing performance as the grown-up Christina, fearless and always frank, whether confronting a child molester, getting a smile from a dour desk clerk, asking for money from every corporate representative trying to do business in Vietnam or challenging God to do a better job or at least get out of her way and let her get on with it. And her indomitable spirit and merry heart make this remarkable story vivid, true, and touching.
Parents should know that this film includes themes of deprivation and abuse, including the loss of a parent, abandonment, gang rape, child molestation, child homelessness, and a character being forced to give up her child. There is some strong language, drinking, and smoking.
Family discussion: Why was helping the homeless and orphaned children of Vietnam so important to Christina Noble? What made it possible for her to survive the loss, abandonment, and abuse of her early years? How can you learn to be more resilient?
If you like this, try: Noble’s book, Bridge Across My Sorrows
, and another real-life-inspired story, “Mary and Martha”
