Blue Bayou is an emotionally powerful film with a heart of gold that is really great for 2/3rds of its runtime. There’s very little wrong with this movie… until a muddled, overly-complicated final act.

The film is about a Korean man who was adopted and moved to the United States at three years old. He’s had a tough life but has settled in with his (white) wife and her daughter… with his brand new baby on the way. But after a run-in with the law, problems with his adoption in 1988 are found and he faces deportation back to a country he barely remembers.

This film has a great cast with a lot of chemistry… Justin Chon’s on-screen relationship with his daughter is a thing of beauty and delight. And he gets on pretty well with the lovely Alicia Vikander as well. Chon himself plays his roll perfectly and I’d be genuinely curious to see how much of his down home / New Orleans accent is him vs. an act. Great performance if it’s all acting… but also a great performance either way.

But, like I said at the jump, the end of this movie gets pretty complicated like they are trying to fit in too many plot points for the run-time. Like maybe this was meant to run another half hour to give all the twists time to breath. It gets frustrating with the bouncing back and forth between ideas and moments. Maybe that’s intentional to show how messy the deportation situation is?

Regardless of how messy it gets, the final moments are emotionally stirring, emotionally powerful. It kind of redeems and forgives the tenuous grip on the story, regardless of how emotionally manipulative it may be.

The movie has a political message about the state of adults who are being deported due to messed-up adoption records from decades earlier. I, for one, think this should not be a hot potato topic though I know it is. This movie has a stance on it and I agree with it. Your tolerance of such messages in movies may vary.

I very much enjoyed this film and would have loved to give it a slightly better review. But, still, it’s a wonderful watch even though it comes short of the summit.

Score: 88