Brilliant and touching

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I homeschool my 12 year old daughter. We are eclectic in our curriculum. My daughter is on a grade level with Sophomore students. This film opened our eyes to the struggle happening in Kenya while the British were fighting over land. This is a great follow up movie to The Good Lie. Although completely different storyline, there is a familiarity and almost mirroring between the two films. This story follows Maruge, an 84 year old gentleman who was part of the Mau Mau tribe and taken into custody after his family was brutally murdered before his eyes. Maruge never received an education, as was true for the majority of adults during this time period. The First Grader follows Maruge's struggle to receive an education and learn to read well after his release from the detainee/work camp in 1963. Maruge appeals to adult and teenaged viewers. He is a classic underdog. He is worth rooting for. Jane Obinchu is the primary school teacher in this remote location in Kenya. She's instantly likable. The viewer feels her pull to help Maruge despite her husband's insistence that it will be nothing but trouble. Jane is engaging, endearing, and in the end, a classic heroine. I would recommend this movie to open up lines of communication between yourself and your child. To expose them to real people during a real event that could easily be used as a 'Torchlighters" series. Follow it up or set it up with The Good Lie. Both well done. Both deserving of an audience.

One can not argue with true events so you must absorb the plot and then take a look at what is happening today in parts of Africa. The key is still respect for education because it is a threat to peace. The desire to learn is so deep in the main character--which has been a desire in many who did not have the opportunity. The movie also shows that youth can learn from seniors-therefore I would recommend it for middle school and up. I am so pleased to have been at home when this was shown on Showtime and will certainly encourage all literacy volunteers, teachers, and librarians to view it. Hats off to the director and production staff.

First, let me say this was a very engrossing tale. It's very difficult not to be sympathetic to the lead character, an 84-year old man who wants a basic education. But my antenna went up about 1/4 of the way into the movie when they start exploring the main characters Mau-Mau past. Wasn't Barak Obama's grandfather a Mau-Mau? Why yes! I believe he was! Then about 3/4 of the way through the movie my BS alert went into overdrive when one of the "extras" excitedly mentions Michelle Obama. And I finally realized, at the end, when another tangential character (stolen from the movie "Vanishing Point; Cleavon Little's "Super Soul") asks, "What's next? A black man in the White House?" Remember -- this movie was made two full years after there WAS a black man in the White House. So there was no predicting here; just celebrating. And the point of the movie? You be the judge. But I'm guessing it was a lot less about the on-screen story than the selling of an off-screen one. Just my opinion, of course. Just remember, the movie was a production of the propaganda department - the BBC - of a socialist government.

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. ***