Movie Thoughts: The Tiger Rising (2022)

• Released: January 7th, 2022
• Directed by: Ray Giarratana
• Running time: 1h 42min
• Rating 2/5

Synopsis

A boy named Rob and a girl named Sistine find a tiger in a cage in the woods. Together they debate on whether or not they should set the animal free.

My Thoughts

I like movies with animals in them so this looked appealing to me. But the final product, hoo boy. Not good.

Okay, this movie isn't like downright worthless or anything, but you can tell it was just made rather cheaply and it just isn't very good in general.

While the story of two children finding comfort in this tiger and eventually setting it free might sound sweet and inspiring, the execution fell flat on its face. The movie feels too long and too repetitive, with there being so many similar back-and-forth conversations between the characters about the same few topics, and not much else happening.

The movie also takes place in pretty much only two locations: the motel or the forest behind the motel. There's a few brief scenes at Rob's school but that's the only other location we see here. So this makes the movie feel super cheap and same-y. We never go anywhere else. This world feels super tiny and cramped. 

The characters also are nothing to write home about. Rob is just a generic quiet kid character. He doesn't have any unique character development and his bond with Sistine felt forced. Sistine is a bit more uniquely written as she's a character with a lot of pain in her which manifests in arrogance and lashing out at others, but this can also make her a bit unlikable. She's not like this in a few scenes, she's consistently like this throughout the entire movie sans the last two or so scenes. And it does get on one's nerves. Then there's Rob's father (who is barely present) and Beauchamp, the villain. Both of these characters are again very shallow and they can be really annoying and unlikable, too. The only character in this movie I genuinely found myself liking was Willie May, who takes on somewhat of a maternal role to the kids and is consistently just a very kind and warm character.

The tiger in the movie, despite being a very major element of the title and poster, barely does anything. It sits in a cage, it pisses and eats, and then when it is released, it dies because Rob's father shoots it. This was a huge letdown for me, because the tiger on the poster was the main thing drawing me in to watch this film. So if you're watching this for the tiger, don't. You'll be disappointed.

I also feel that this movie really should've done a better job of addressing just how stupid the kids were to let the tiger go. It tries to frame this as a heroic act of these children, but we all know that in reality this would've gone terribly, even if Rob's dad hadn't shot the animal. The tiger can't hunt and doesn't know any natural tiger behavior, and worse yet it probably would've attacked people because of this and would've gotten shot anyways. 

Also, seriously, releasing a tiger in the Florida suburbs, did they really expect this to go over well? If it had been an actual Indian jungle or somewhere else tigers live natively that'd have been one thing, but this is literally the woods behind suburbia. Someone would've gotten hurt, and the tiger would've been shot in retaliation anyways. So the outcome of this whole ordeal, the tiger dying a brutal death, is honestly the children's fault and there is nothing heroic about them setting the tiger free here. Worse yet, they were legitimately endangering themselves and other people by setting it free. So I don't like how the movie frames this action of the children as a noble thing to do when it's really not. I think a better action would've been to look for a reputable sanctuary to take in the tiger. 

So yeah, not a good movie. It feels painfully repetitious, the characters (except Willie May) are nothing to write home about, the two locations feel uninteresting and the tiger barely does anything. Skip this one.