A Foundling is an Interesting Tale of Old West Survival
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A Foundling is lightly sci-fi/horror, but it does have a fair amount to offer. It tells a good story of women, The West, and aliens but is also held back by its flaws.
Written by James "Crypticpsych" Lasome
February 22, 2011
Movie Trailer
Image Gallery
Release: 2010 (Various Festivals)
Written and Directed by: Carly Lyn
Starring:
Cindy Chiu as Virginia Wales
Nora Jesse as Mattie
Shelby Bond as Baylor
Sara Smalls as Ya-Yu - Creature
Leroy Adams as Alien - Voice
It's 1862, and Virginia (Chiu), a missionary, has traveled from her home in San Bernadino out to Arizona to rescue her long-lost sister Mattie (Jesse) from a life of prostitution. Finding her, the two set out across the Mojave for home and a safer life for Mattie. Their horse may not be healthy, but it should get the job done.
One night, while they count shooting stars, a strange light flashes across the sky and crashes a distance away. As they move along the next day, Mattie finds a piece of metal with etching on it (we'd know it as a circuitboard). She follows a trail of the shards and comes upon the site of some sort of craft that crash landed in the middle of the rocks and sand. Amongst the wreckage is a strange, deformed being (Smalls) with an injured arm. While Virginia attempts to set it, the creature bites Mattie on the wrist. Mattie insists that they have to ensure the creature's survival, and thus the duo set out with their new companion in tow. As Mattie's injury grows life-threatening and no form of medicine seems to help, though, the creature proves to be more than a handful. Will the group make their way to safety or will they end up lost in the desert?
It's pretty rare and noteworthy to find a movie like A Foundling; that is a movie being carried by two Chinese female leads who, in no way, are stereotypical of their nationality or gender. The major reason that, for 
the most part, this film works is that these two actresses are capable of carrying their roles and this film more than easily. While Chiu and Jesse's performances play well off of each other, they're by no means the same. Chiu's character, while being very moral in terms of speech, is generally the more careful of the two, assuming a "leader" role and being less than trusting of outside assistance. Jesse's character, on the other hand, can assert herself when necessary but is generally kinder and more motherly (it is, after all, her idea to keep "Ya-Yu" and she who defends him when the situation calls for it). This balance makes the two believable as sisters and helps the overall project.
In terms of the technical aspects, Carly Lyn should be proud of making a solid indie that successfully pulls off many tasks that can trip the low-budget filmmaker up. First, the film absolutely feels like 1862 through costumes, architecture, and the general feel of the film. The looping of the dialogue is also perfect, thereby avoiding the bad dubbing of many films. The effects are also quite good with the aliens looking fairly simple yet still otherworldly through their masks/makeup. The gore effects on Mattie's progressively-worsening arm are also top-notch.
There are a fair few issues with A Foundling that prevent me from rating it as high as I'd like to, though. First, and least important, I understand that this is an indie film and thus alternate takes and reshoots are at a premium. But there is a line, and that line is being able to see a horse directly behind a character's head relieving itself over the course of a scene, hearing its excrement hit the ground. There HAD to be a better take than that. Secondly, a piece of the last third of the film seems extremely sudden and a little unexplained. Without giving too much away, I'll just say I'm not entirely sure where these people came from and how they know our main characters.
The greatest flaw of A Foundling, though, is that it is NOT what it claims to be. According to the back of the screener, this is "An Exciting Tale of Mystery and Adventure". Personally, I'd have written the description as more of a Western drama. The plot moves very slowly and comes across as dangerously dull at times. If I was expecting a drama, I might be more forgiving of this, but being misled into thinking this was more of an 
"adventure" makes this problem stand out all the more. One way to fix this would maybe have been to have the creature do more alien-y things. For much of the film, he, though cute, kind of keeps to himself and avoids doing anything particularly other-worldly. Therefore, rather than being a story of two women and the extraordinary creature they found in the desert, the film at times feels like the women actually have the deformed son that they try and pass off the alien creature as.
Overall, if you're looking for a straight Sci-Fi movie, I can't really recommend A Foundling. It's well-made and well-acted but suffers from criminally slow pacing and an underuse of its alien element. As an original Western drama with unorthodox female leads, it's a bit above average and worth a look. As an adventure, though, A Foundling is just too boring.
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