The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Netflix Movie Review
L ast year, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Netflix headed to Sundance with Come Lord's day, a dramatisation of the life of "heretic" pastor Carlton Pearson that, despite the provocative source textile, fizzled out before making a soft landing online months after. Histrion and platform have reassembled for a second try to woo Utah crowds with a BFI-backed projection shut to the Oscar nominee'south centre – so close, in fact, that the 12 Years a Slave star picked it equally his directorial debut.
In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Ejiofor has found an amazing true story to tell, based on a book by William Kamkwamba, the boy of the title. Information technology'southward 2001 in Malawi, and the Kamkwamba family unit is struggling to make ends meet but parents Trywell (Ejiofor) and Agnes (Aïssa Maïga) remain focused on their children's education, despite the financial cost. When their 13-year-old son William (Maxwell Simba) is forced to leave school after falling backside on payments, he becomes determined to help not only his family just a community facing dearth.
When adapting a novel with a child protagonist, directors also often resort to creating an overly childlike picture, hostage and sentimental to a mistake, any sense of reality declining to seep through. From The Kite Runner to The Lovely Bones, a delicate residuum of trauma and treacle on the page has erred toward an overdose of the latter on the big screen. Ejiofor, from a script he adapted himself, is up against a similar battle simply despite behind-camera inexperience, he manages to toe the line with ease, skilfully manoeuvring between charm and poignancy. It's a conventional film in many ways but one that slowly and effectively builds to a remarkably rousing climax, displaying an act of overwhelming ingenuity that's hard to deny.
For some, the journeying there might be a tad too slow only I'd argue that it's a necessary clamber: Ejiofor carefully lays the pic'south emotional foundation and ensures that the story is never less than involving. A great credit here should also exist given to newcomer Simba, whose lead functioning is really quite extraordinary. With his soulful eyes and infectious enthusiasm, he anchors the drama effectually him, easily steering himself through the story's emotional shifts as he matures from a playful child to a philanthropic saviour.
While Ejiofor does pitch the flick at a broad audience, he makes a key decision not to force his characters to ever speak English. They oscillate between English and Chichewa, mostly using the latter, and at a time when also many picture-makers are choosing to avert subtitles, fifty-fifty when telling fact-based stories from foreign countries, information technology'south hugely refreshing. There's an interesting throughline, rarely seen on screen, of tradition v modernity in rural Africa, of parents deliberately eschewing what they perceive to exist dated conventionalities systems of the past to encourage progress. They don't want to rely on praying for rain to save their crops; they want pragmatism instead. Information technology's also reflected in a desire for pedagogy so that children tin get out their village, determined that they won't be facing similar hardships as adults.
There'due south like complexity in the characterisation, most notably in Ejiofor's conflicted, flawed father who craves instruction for his children yet must deal with the consequences of feeling less intelligent than them and of the crippling financial impact. Ejiofor has long been a charming presence on screen but here he'due south stripped back of his more obvious star presence and is no less impressive as a haunted, beleaguered and not always likable man.
There's unavoidable darkness in the story and Ejiofor leans into the cruel reality of Malawi's early 2000s food crunch while balancing the more harrowing details with notes of resilience and promise. When the climax arrives, it's with immense, earned satisfaction, a crowd-pleasing triumph that will have to exist enjoyed on Netflix without ane.
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is showing at the Sundance film festival and will premiere on Netflix on one March
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/25/the-boy-who-harnessed-the-wind-review-chiwetel-ejiofor
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