Like many homeless children throughout the world, they seek to anesthetize themselves against the harshness of their lives by huffing paint in plastic bags. It’s cheap and it completely cuts them off from the world. Sadly, they seek it out above all else, even above food – because it makes them forget that they’re hungry. And despite putting them in a drunken, brain damaged stupor, the children roam the streets, fighting and running, doing whatever they can to get drugs.

Children Underground is a mostly structureless documentary, simply allowing the camera to observer their lives, and the frank madness of their lives. It really is at once frightening and fascinating to watch these children as they live completely unsupervised, mostly ignored by the populace as they go about their daily routine traveling on the subway and eating lunch. It’s obvious that some of the children are more scared than others. Some rise to become natural leaders, while some simply break down. Nearly every child who is forced into this is socially stunted. Like feral children, they yell at people, fight – it’s as though because of the lack of interaction and love in their lives, that much of their humanity has been stripped away from them.

But this isn’t their fault, and not everyone has given up on these children. Social workers do their best to convince the families that taking their children back is probably the best thing for the child’s well being. But it becomes clear that the children returning to the family that abandoned them is often the worst possible solution. In some cases, the parents literally have no way to feed their children, so they believe that it’s better for them to attempt to get food out on the streets. In other cases, the children refuse to return to their parents because they are emotionally and physically abusive.

Children Underground is a documentary that grabs you from the instant that it comes on the screen. I popped this movie in late one night planning on only watching a portion of it, but I was so enthralled, I kept the movie going into the early hours of morning. The film presents no solution to the problem in Romania, nor is it a grand achievement in directing or editing. Where it does succeed is bringing to light a prevalent problem around the world, not just in Romania. It succeeds in shining a light on these children underground.

Movie Grade: A+

Video: 3 out of 5
The film was shot on DV and presented as such. There are no funny post production tricks (except for a few sections which look like they may have been shot in 16mm), and it’s presented as a full frame.
Full Frame – 1.33:1

Audio: 3 out of 5
There’s no music or narration to speak of, so the two channel audio works perfectly here.
Romanian (Dolby 2.0) – Some interviews are in unsubtitled English

Extras: 1 out of 5
The most interesting extra is the “what are they doing now?” text presentation that contains updates on all of the children highlighted in the film. Like the movie itself, it’s mostly sad, but incredibly powerful. There’s also a short text extra on how the director decided to do this film.

Overall: 4 out of 5
Despite its rather thin presentation, Children Underground is a fascinating enough documentary to justify the purchase. It’s a moving and scary look at young people almost completely forgotten by society.

The problem with the movie is that it isn’t edgy enough to be a cult it or bad enough to be mocked mercilessly like Swept Away. On the other hand, it really isn’t all that good – it’s not funny, it’s not romantic and it’s not dramatic, despite trying to be all three.

It’s a failure because it was a movie with so much potential. Featuring three leads who have been nominated for Academy Awards and a veteran actor/director behind the camera, the movie really had everything going for it. Even the script show some hints of brilliance. But for some reason, when all of the elements are mixed together, it becomes a terrible combination.

And it’s not like the cast is terrible either. Sure, Williams is his usual over-the-top self, but that’s what we’ve come to expect. Edward Norton is perhaps a little miscast as the down to earth children’s performer and Catherine Keener really doesn’t get to show off all of her skills. But maybe that’s what makes the movie so bad – a lot of little missteps and mistakes that ultimately add up to one bad movie.

Movie Grade: C-

Video: 4 out of 5
The transfer is really good. The black levels are nice and dark, skin tones balanced and the crazy colors of the set come through bright and shiny.
Widescreen anamorphic – 1:85:1

Audio: 4 out of 5
The tracks have great range, some nice base and are general well imaged between the front tracks.
English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)

Extras: 4 out of 5
There’s quite a few nice supplements. Although DeVito doesn’t always make for the most interesting speaker, he does acknowledge the movie’s failure. Recorded separately from the Director of Photography, the commentary is well cut together, and gives a ton of really nice practical and technical hints on the making of a movie. Perhaps it’s a little more geared towards the film student crowd, rather than the casual fan. There’s deleted scenes, a nice behind the scenes featurette, bloopers, and boatloads of photos and art. The disc is a single disc in a keep case.

Overall: 3 out of 5
If not for the nice supplements, this disc would have received a much lower score. Rent this disc to satisfy your curiosity factor, but don’t buy it unless you’re a film nerd.

Year: 2002
Directed by: Danny DeVito
Written by: Adam Resnick
Starring: Robin Williams, Edward Norton and Catherine Keener
Details: 109 mins / Warner Bros. / Rated R