“The First Grader,” a new movie that is making its way into select theaters (read: New York and Los Angeles) , tells the story of Kimani Ng’ang’a Maruge, an illiterate Kenyan who enrolled in primary school at the age of 84. I’m always wary of intentionally “uplifting” tales, and The New York Times’ review is lukewarm (and so far reviews overall appear mixed), as this snippet indicates:
There is powerful drama here, but too many of the scenes are handled with blunt portentousness rather than the subtlety a story as rich as this one deserves. And as a result, a specific and potent slice of history is turned into another predictable, well-intentioned movie. Not a bad one, mind you, but one that never quite lives up to its potential.
Nonetheless, in other circles the film has generated positive buzz, and there are worse things than uplift when it comes to stories from Kenya. Color me cautiously optimistic.
