Holly Review-By Kelsey Zukowski

Starring: Ron Livingston, Thuy Nguyen
Directed By: Guy Moshe
Written By: Guy Jacobson, Guy Moshe
DVD Release: January 27, 2009
Grade: B

Holly is a powerful film that deals with the sex slave trade that is very present all over the world today. There are millions of kids who are subjected to this. A portion of the proceeds of the DVD, will go to RedLight Children, a campaign fighting for the end of all modern-day slavery. Holly centers on the exploitation of young children all over Cambodia, but specifically centers on one 12-year old girl, Holly. It focuses not just what is going on and the effect that it has on the morality code as well as this girl’s mental state, but it’s really about this strange relationship that this girl and an American man form.

Holly (Nguyen) has been brought back to her owner after trying to escape the terrible conditions she is subjected to day after day, which ends up just making things worse. She is treated like an animal, and even referred to as one often. She has to work day in and day out or she will be subjected to further abuse and starvation. As if the thought of this isn’t scary enough she is constantly being threatened with her sister’s life, which subject her to the same life that Holly has. Soon she meets Patrick (Livingston), a card shark and dealer of stolen artifacts who finds himself stranded in Cambodia for a few days while his motorcycle is being repaired. He ends up renting a room where Holly lives and works. Patrick tries to help Holly out, but largely he is just waiting until he can go and leave this place behind. The two begin to connect with each other and Patrick helps make her life a little bit easier while he is there. As they get closer and closer, Holly sees this as her chance to have a better life. She would much rather live with Patrick than those she is living with now. She asks Patrick to buy her, but the thought of buying this little girl scares him.

As Patrick begins to feel more and more for Holly, he just can’t stand the thought of leaving her to live as she has been. He decides to buy her, but when he tries to he is told that she is gone. He is not sure if he believes it or if others are just trying to prevent her from having any type of freedom or happiness. Patrick searches for her, but can’t find her anywhere. After attempted to be seduced by a prostitute that lived with Holly, he finds out where she went. To get out, Holly had to sell nearly everything that she owned, but she couldn’t imagine going back. Once she gets out she is still working bad jobs in very dangerous environments, but at least she has freedom. A Vietnamese officer recognizes that she isn’t from around the area. Holly is hesitant to go with him, but he feeds her and gives her a ride. It turns out that she was right not to trust him as she is sold right back in to slavery as a child prostitute this time living in a brothel. Patrick continues searching for her even if he doesn’t know what he can really do for her.

Ron Livingston gives a very compelling performance as Patrick. He offers the right amount of reservation in the beginning that makes the emotion and care that emerges from him in the end show how his eyes have been opened to the cruelty to children in Cambodia. Thuy Nguyen did very good as well as Holly. There was this immense fear that showed in her eyes, hesitations, and language. She really showed how she was being aliened in nearly every way, clearly breaking her over and over again. Chris Penn, in his last on-camera performance also does well in his supporting role as Freddie, a scornful mob boss who assigns Patrick to smuggle artifacts across the border.

The film is grim and unsettling at times, but I really appreciated that it displayed the tragedy and problems in the slave and child sex trafficking trade without seeming too heavy. It takes awhile to even get in to prostitution. We start out with a sad scene of this girl being treated badly and being forced to work in hopes of surviving. Still, by doing this it slowly takes us in to this environment and focuses on telling the story rather than just trying to make us uncomfortable or shock us. There really isn’t anything very graphic shown, it is much more with the atmosphere and lack of morals that seem to be everywhere around. Even when Patrick decides that he is going to help Holly there is great questioning of how he can even do this since the system is designed to keep these children enslaved so others can profit off of them. If he could come up with the money to buy Holly than he is supporting the trade and would be just increasing the number of children who will be enslaved in the future by showing there is a demand for them. In the area they are in, adopting is illegal and if he tries to smuggle her out of the country than she will most likely be arrested, really hurting Holly more than it would benefit her. Also, even though he is trying to save her, Patrick is now part of a very dark chapter in Holly’s life, which being around him will only remind her of. I really liked how the film also acknowledged how it’s easier to know of the evils around you, but to ignore them and go about your life. It is once you acknowledge the innocence in the victims that are human just like you are that you can’t help but fight these wrongdoings.

One thing that surprised me in the film was how accepting Holly was. Her parents were poor and resorted to selling their young daughter for money. She doesn’t hold any grudges against them though. She understood why they did it and although she hates where it has brought her she is glad that by selling her she was able to help out her family for the time being. The effects of the life she is in really come to surface in some troubling moments. The most immediate of these is just her small frame of understanding. Holly has been trained only to serve and has become closed off and ignorant of everything else. She speaks English, but it is very broken English, clearly from never being able to get an education. She offers to be Patrick’s wife in hopes of getting away from the environment she has been in. She is desperate to do this even when Patrick says she is far too young. Holly doesn’t seem to grasp that there might just be a decent older man wanting to be a father figure to her as opposed to the sexual predators that she is typically around. When Holly is in the brothel, she quickly forgets her life that came before that, even those few moments of happiness that should have been dear to here. She can’t even recognize her salvation when it appears right before her. Holly is a gripping story of very real belittlement and sexploitation, centering itself around a heartwarming relationship, questioning whether faith or hopelessness is more prevalent.