Sonny Boy (2011)

Sonny Boy is a movie that is an adaptation of a book with the same title, written by Annejet van der Zijl. It tells the true story of Waldemar Nods (played by Sergio Hasselbaink) who left Surinam in the twenties last century to study in the Netherlands. It’s a big change in environment and people look at him differently because of his color. He meets Rika (Ricky Koole), a mother who has left her husband together with her children. As she struggles with her ex she also has issues being able to earn enough money to keep a roof above her head. Although the two of them initially don’t have a lot of contact, but their feelings for each other grow and together they try to build a life together. Turns out that this not very easy because of their different color of skin, preconceptions and a world war.

Sonny Boy starts in Surinam and it’s nice to see how they have managed to change the area around fort Zeelandia (which is located in the centre of the city of Paramaribo) to give it an authentic look with beautiful costumes. I’ve been there twice and it was nice to see. This eye for detail is present throughout the movie. The shots in the Netherlands look great as well. Old cars drive around, the houses are decorated like they would be around that time and the streetlife looks realistic.

Unfortunately there are some things wrong with this movie. It tries to tell too much story resulting in not enough depth. Another thing which seems to be missing is emotion. An example: The movie starts in Surinam where we see Waldemar swimming in the river. His father is on a boat and comes along side him telling him that he’s going to Brazil and that he won’t be back for a while. This scene felt strange as it is totally unclear what type of man his father is and what he does for a living and why he just leaves like that. Sonny Boy is not a short film (130 minutes) and with such a length you should be swept away on a wave of emotion. I wasn’t convinced however and didn’t care enough for the characters. One of the reasons is that the acting isn’t always strong enough.

As this is a historic movie I expected that once I’d finish it that I’d get a complete image of the main characters, but at the end I had many unanswered questions.

The movie looks great and it’s obvious that the budget wasn’t low (although the special effects during the bombing of a boat weren’t completely convincing). Despite the budget there are small annoyances which prevent you to completely lose yourself in this movie (the German soldiers are played by Dutch actors for example, which can be heard very clearly because of the accents)). A couple of days after watching Sonny Boy I saw Beautiful Life and when you feel more emotions when you watch a kids movie, then you know that the quality isn’t what you had hoped.

Score: 6