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FAR FROM THE TREE
Director: Rachel Dretzin MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:33 Release Date: 7/20/18 (limited); 8/17/18 (wider) |
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Capsule review by Mark Dujsik | August 16, 2018 The driving forces of Far from the Tree are director Rachel Dretzin and author Andrew Solomon. Solomon wrote the book of the same name—an exploration of parents whose children are different from them in some way. Dretzin takes the concept and reduces it to a handful of case studies, revolving the personal stories of ordinary people around Solomon's own life story as a gay man whose parents found it difficult, if not impossible, to accept his sexuality. Lest this sound too academic, let it be known that Dretzin's approach is wholly personal. She interviews the parents and, when possible, the children who are different from them. There's a child with autism, whose parents struggled for years to find a way of communicating with their son. There's a 23-year-old woman with dwarfism, whose mother accompanies her to an annual convention for little people. From there, the film branches off to a married couple, both of whom have dwarfism and who are planning to have a baby. A man approaching 40 has Down syndrome, and when he was a child, his parents presented him in academia and to the media as clear evidence that people with that genetic disorder should not be dismissed from society. Finally, there are the parents of a young man who, at the age of 16, murdered an 8-year-old boy. They became outcasts, because too many people either publicly or secretly believed they were responsible for their son's actions in some way. The structure of the film is straightforward, going story by story, with the details of Solomon's own history serving as interludes, and ultimately returning to each one for a happy or as-uplifting-as-possible conclusion. Dretzin and her various subjects don't offer us the comfort of rose-tinted glasses, though. The struggles here are real and heartbreaking. The levels of patience and compassion needed to raise and be involved in the lives of these children are extraordinary. The film's commitments to embracing differences, seeing the devotion of these parents as something as natural as breathing, and showing us the value of these lives are inspiring. It's a complex idea, presented with simplicity. "Different" is relative, Far from the Tree argues, but the need for family and the love between parents and their children are some of the few constants in life. The fact that, in some way, we're all different is another. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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