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Oranges and Sunshine

If ever there was a film that would have benefited from some ripped-from-the-headlines fervor, it is Oranges and Sunshine.

If ever there was a film that would have benefited from some ripped-from-the-headlines fervor, it is Oranges and Sunshine.

This too-quiet, too-sluggish film tells the nearly unfathomable true story of roughly 130,000 British children, wards of the state in the '40s and '50s, who were told their parents had died and that "oranges and sunshine" awaited them in Australia. Instead, they were shipped Down Under to draconian orphanages where they suffered sexual abuse and were forced into labor. Decades later, Nottingham social worker Margaret Humphreys (Watson) uncovered and exposed all those dirty little secrets.

It's easy to understand why British director Jim Loach, son of eclectic director Ken (The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Looking for Eric), would want to handle such compelling material carefully. But sometimes the facts can get in the way of the drama, and that's the central problem here. 

The real story begins to emerge only when Margaret is approached after work by one of those now-grown children seeking her help in finding her roots.

The push and pull of the film are both internal - from the deported - and external, from the various institutions unwilling to take responsibility for what happened. (It was only last year that the British prime minister issued a public apology; Australia's came in 2009.)

- Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times