The Tiger Rising (film)

The Tiger Rising is a 2022 American drama film written and directed by Ray Giarratana and starring Christian Convery, Madalen Mills, Katharine McPhee, Sam Trammell, Dennis Quaid and Queen Latifah. It is based on the 2001 book of the same name by Kate DiCamillo.

Plot
12-year-old Rob Horton suffers from a strange, itchy rash on his legs that he knows isn't contagious. He lives with his father in a Florida motel called the Kentucky Star. His father (named Robert), and Rob have recently moved to Lister, Florida, after the death of Rob's mother, Caroline, to cancer six months prior. Rob is quite often bullied by mean girls at school. Things begin to change when Rob discovers a caged tiger in the forest while wandering the woods. He then meets a girl named Sistine Bailey (named after the Sistine Chapel) who has recently moved nearby. Rob shows Sistine the tiger. Rob, who usually keeps his feelings locked away in an imaginary suitcase begins to involuntarily open up emotionally to Sistine. Though Sistine insists on letting the tiger go, Rob is wary of what will happen to it if he does. Rob finally relents and releases the tiger, letting it run into the woods. However, just moments later, Rob's father shoots the tiger dead. Rob's father is then seen holding the gun over the tiger in front of the Kentucky Star. Rob then angrily attacks his father and tells him he wishes his father died instead of the tiger, and also forces him to say the name Caroline Horton, which Rob is forbidden to say. Rob also insists they bury the tiger, and have a funeral. At the tiger's funeral, Sistine recites a part of William Blake's The Tiger. Rob and his father confront their unresolved feelings about Rob's mother and Rob begins looking forward to going to school with Sistine.

Cast

 * Christian Convery as Rob Horton
 * Dennis Quaid as Beauchamp
 * Queen Latifah as Willie May
 * Madalen Mills as Sistine Bailey
 * Katharine McPhee as Caroline Horton
 * Sam Trammell as Rob Horton Sr.
 * Nicholas Ryan Hernandez as Billy Threemonger
 * Jayden Fontaine as Norton Threemonger
 * Angela Giarratana as Miss Mills

Production
Principal photography occurred in Tifton, Georgia and Thomasville, Georgia in November 2019. Filming wrapped in December 2019.

Controversy
On November 18, 2021, The Hollywood Reporter published an article about Ryan Donnell Smith, Allen Cheney, Emily Hunter Salveson and Ryan Winterstern not paying crew members before or after filming the movie.

Release
The film was released in theaters on January 21, 2022 and on Demand and Digital February 8, 2022.

Box office
In South Africa, the film earned $16,541 from 59 theaters in its opening weekend. In the United States and Canada, the film earned $364,216 from 872 theaters in its first weekend, and $214,980 in its second.

Reception
The film has a 17% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. On Metacritic — which assigns a weighted mean score — the film has a score of 33 out of 100 based on 6 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Nick Schager of Variety gave the film a negative review and wrote, "The fact that writer-director Ray Giarratana's film is based on Kate DiCamillo's children's book — and thus intended for young audiences — is hardly an excuse for such stodgy storytelling, which plays out with no mystery, ambiguity or subtlety."

Nadir Samara of Screen Rant awarded the film one star out of five and wrote, "The Tiger Rising is too serious & abstract for kids yet too ham-fisted for adults. Sadly, the tale has none of the imagination its protagonist does."