The virtue of friendliness

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 2006)

Hopkins was delightful as Burt Munro, a lovable eccentric with a dream, whose mastery of the human virtues of friendliness, one-pointedness, and non-judgmental, open hearted acceptance of everyone he meets on his adventure, wins him the support of Nature that he needs to fulfill his 25 year desire. A wonderful story, masterfully told, and Kiwi Jon Clarke's assessment notwithstanding, we "yanks" loved it here in the states. My wife and I haven't been down under to beautiful New Zealand yet, but I have stood on the salt flats of the once great Lake Bonneville, and feel this is as much an American story as it is a Kiwi's. In fact it's a human feel good movie that can't be contained by any nation's borders.