The premise has a worrying potential for mawkishness and manipulativeness - an 11 year old girl (Camino) falls sweetly in love as it becomes increasingly apparent that she's terminally ill - but what gives the film bite, and a lot of its heaviness, is the intensity of her (Catholic) faith and the way that plays out around her family, particularly her unswervingly devout mother. The anti-humanistic and frankly inhumane nature of much of that version of Catholic doctrine espoused by Opus Dei comes through strongly, and the fantasy sequences reflecting her inner landscape while dreaming or under anaesthesia during the gruellingly-depicted surgery are memorable and powerful, highlighting the heightenedness and terror that Camino's belief in Jesus, the Virgin, her guardian angel and the whole pantheon (so to speak) induces in her imaginative life.
Manipulative though it at times seemed, the fact remains that, over its two and a half hours, Camino caused several of the most poised people I know to do some serious crying (at least if the red eyes and flushed, blotchy faces were anything to judge by), and speaking for myself, its impact is undeniable. I'm going to recommend it left, right and centre, without being in any hurry to repeat the experience myself.
(w/ Steph, Nicolette and Michelle; Hugh M and Eleanor M-H also there, and we also saw Kristian I and Gia)
