STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
The Kenyan government suddenly announces free education for all- something 84 year old former Mau Mau warrior Maruge (Oliver Litondo in his debut role) takes rather literally, turning up at the run down school meant to teach six year olds to get what he should have had as a child. Meeting fierce opposition from parents and teachers, the only one who comes round to giving him a chance is teacher Jane (Naomie Harris) with whom he takes a rickety journey with various twists and turns.
Justin Chadwick's little heard of drama is another drama for the 'fact is stranger than fiction' staple, detailing the true life story of Maruge who really battled for his right to what he should have been given as a youngster, and died in 2009 at the age of 89, 84 surprising enough an age given the average life expectancy for a male in Kenya can't be more than late forties?!? In all ways, it's a bizarre tale made even more bizarre by the fact it's true. But true it is, and while Chadwick's effort doesn't go beyond the genre conventions of the 'triumpth against all odds' formula, it plays to them as competently and effectively as it should, never becoming too drowned in sentiment or too clichéd and predictable to care about it. In what is ironically his debut acting role, in the lead Litondo feels very much like the character he's playing, an old and confused man with what seem to some like eccentric expectations, haunted by a devastating past he still hasn't come to terms with as a very old man, while the always impressive Harris nails the role as the driven, determined teacher.
The only real, and notable, criticism of The First Grader is that it's just been done before, and doesn't really do anything to make it stand out from the loads of other films there have been about someone struggling against the odds to achieve the seemingly impossible. But as a way to take up just over an hour and a half of your time, it's a faultless and delivering enough example of the formula. ***
The Kenyan government suddenly announces free education for all- something 84 year old former Mau Mau warrior Maruge (Oliver Litondo in his debut role) takes rather literally, turning up at the run down school meant to teach six year olds to get what he should have had as a child. Meeting fierce opposition from parents and teachers, the only one who comes round to giving him a chance is teacher Jane (Naomie Harris) with whom he takes a rickety journey with various twists and turns.
Justin Chadwick's little heard of drama is another drama for the 'fact is stranger than fiction' staple, detailing the true life story of Maruge who really battled for his right to what he should have been given as a youngster, and died in 2009 at the age of 89, 84 surprising enough an age given the average life expectancy for a male in Kenya can't be more than late forties?!? In all ways, it's a bizarre tale made even more bizarre by the fact it's true. But true it is, and while Chadwick's effort doesn't go beyond the genre conventions of the 'triumpth against all odds' formula, it plays to them as competently and effectively as it should, never becoming too drowned in sentiment or too clichéd and predictable to care about it. In what is ironically his debut acting role, in the lead Litondo feels very much like the character he's playing, an old and confused man with what seem to some like eccentric expectations, haunted by a devastating past he still hasn't come to terms with as a very old man, while the always impressive Harris nails the role as the driven, determined teacher.
The only real, and notable, criticism of The First Grader is that it's just been done before, and doesn't really do anything to make it stand out from the loads of other films there have been about someone struggling against the odds to achieve the seemingly impossible. But as a way to take up just over an hour and a half of your time, it's a faultless and delivering enough example of the formula. ***