Hop

Hop is half a good movie, and half a silly one – which is a shame, given how effective the first half is. The setup is fairly simple: A young boy named Justin (Kalomba Mboyi) is forced to go on the run after his father is arrested by Belgium police (the two had been living in the country illegally). Justin takes refuge with a kindly old man and his maid, and the three begin hatching a scheme to get his father back. There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about Hop; it’s just an interesting little story that’s told well (initially, at least). Everything that makes the story intriguing, primarily Justin’s relationship with the folks that take him in, is abandoned somewhere around the halfway point, and the film turns into a bizarre fantasy that only small kids will be able to appreciate. Not helping matters is the subplot involving a group of cops, seemingly introduced to use up some screentime – as though the screenwriter just plumb ran out of ideas. Newcomer Mboyi is very effective in the central role, while director Dominique Standaert imbues the movie with a distinct sense of style (Hop was filmed using the same sort of digital camera as Attack of the Clones). The film remains worthwhile if only for the early scenes, which feel authentic thanks to Mboyi’s remarkably natural performance.

**1/2 out of ****