The Motel

The Motel ***1/2

"The Motel" is a sad story, mostly because it will be unseen by pretty much everybody under the sun, except those select few that decide to see it over some of the big blockbusters out there. It pains me sometimes to know that films like "When a Stranger Calls" and "Firewall" get green lit, but a perfectly nice story like "The Motel" has to take ages to be made, and then patiently wait for a distributor. It’s sad, really, because "The Motel" should be seen by everyone. It’s a little masterpiece, with an amazing performance by young Jeffrey Chyau.

Chyau plays Ernest, a young Chinese boy living in a motel run by his mother and his grandfather. Ernest is going through puberty, and is starting to become aware of the world around him. He sits on the trash cans of a Chinese restaurant everyday and talks with the waitress there, who he has a massive crush on, and when he’s not doing that or in school doing homework, he’s torturing his little sister by taking her doll, or cleaning up the rooms in the motel after guests leave. He focuses on his work and gets it done, even when the area bully is around following him. Ernest gets into a bit of trouble when his mother finds out that he entered a writing contest, and he won honorable mention. While Ernest is happy about that, his mother tells him that honorable mention is the worst place to be, because it says that he wasn’t good enough to win, and he wasn’t even good enough to loose, either. Therefore, she denies him the chance to go to the fancy award dinner in the winner’s honor, unless he shows her the story that he won for. And then, Ernest meets Sam, the guest in Room 15 whose credit card was declined. Sam gives Ernest his watch as collateral until he gets t he money to pay for the room. Sam is depressed, and when he’s not drinking or having sex with a prostitute, he hangs out with Ernest. He plays baseball with him, throws chicken bones into the parking lot, and teaches him how to drive. But Sam isn’t happy with his life, but then again neither is Ernest.

"The Motel" is a sweet 76 minutes, and almost perfect the entire way. It has the budget the size of my paycheck, but it’s heart is in it all the way. It’s funny, sad, and hopeful. What Ernest goes through with his family is not uncommon in Asian culture, where success is stressed highly. It is a coming of age story, not just with family, but with relationships, and not just Ernest and other girls his age. At the core, "The Motel" is about father-son relationships. Ernest doesn’t have a father figure. Sam is coming out of a crumbling marriage, and never had a son figure. They learn from each other, even though things don’t work out perfectly. By the end, Ernest learns a lot about family, women, and just life itself. Things don’t always work out. Life is like a motel. . . things come in and things come out, and it happens again and again and again, until we go out of business.