This biopic unfolds the story of the philanthropist Christina Noble, who started a foundation in her own name to help impoverished and at risk children in Vietnam and Mongolia. Three actors (Gloria Cramer Curtis for the child, Sarah Greene for the teen and Deirdre O’Kane for the matriarch) play Noble as she endures a traumatic 1940s urban Irish childhood (early dying mum, alcoholic dad, abuse, homelessness) before a dream sends her to south-east Asia to help kids.
In her homeland, Noble, OBE is considered a secular saint of sorts, so this inevitably plays like a hagiography, superficially uplifting but also suspicion-raising: what’s been left out? Is that really the whole story? Can our heroine really be such a marvellous cross between Mother Teresa and Doris Day? A recent documentary about Noble, In a House That Ceased to Be, was flattering too. But it also evoked Noble’s egotism, psychological damage and arguably naive belief that all developing countries need are more pure-hearted do-gooders from the west to come and fix things. But even if you don’t quite buy the philosophy this is selling, the three main actors are impressive and director Stephen Bradley does a fair job of slipping between the different timelines.
