The Beautiful Country

A handful of stunning shots in this melodrama will leave you dizzy: a farmer leading an ox through neck-deep water; a group of flaming paper lanterns floating through the sky. When they sporadically appear during this parable about a half-Vietnamese, half-white man (Nguyen) who goes through hell to find his MIA American father (Nolte), it's almost possible to forget the cloying, clumpy storytelling. Then a plot turn or a line of dialogue drop-kicks you out of your reverie, and you realize that the intermittent gorgeous visuals are nothing more than small respites from a ho-hum movie.