Highway to Dhampus | Salt Lake City Weekly
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  Rated PG · 100 minutes · 2014

Drama, Romance
Good intentions spill from every corner of writer/director Rick McFarland’s low-key drama; if only it all added up to something more substantial. The narrative begins with English socialite Elizabeth (Rachel Hurd-Wood) attempting to salvage a tabloid-tarnished reputation by taking a trip to do charity work at a Nepalese orphanage, accompanied by American photographer Colt (Gunner Morgan). Typically, this might be the cue for a clueless Westerner to learn important lessons from her work in the Third World, but the pleasant surprise is that even more of the film is devoted to the actual Nepalese characters: Laxmi (Suesha Rana), the orphanage’s teacher, and Ajit (Raj Ballav Koirala), the pilot-for hire who takes Elizabeth and Colt to the remote location. And there’s some lovely location footage to accompany the slow evolution of the character relationships. But that evolution is slow indeed, and somehow missing some crucial connective tissue that makes it clear whose story this really is, and why we should be invested in the outcome. While the absence of cliché is a good start, the presence of a stronger arc would make for a better ending.
Staff Rating:
Cast: Raj Koirala, Suesha Rana, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Gunner Wright, Deshbhakta Khanal, Sayush Bajracharya, Sophie McShera, Vinzenz Kiefer, Masha Tokareva and Sunil Shrestha

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