| F E A T U R E S T H O U G H T S R E V I E W S N E W S e v e n t s d i r e c t o r y | |
By Steve Anderson I once read a Dilbert comic where a critic said a movie had "powerful performances," and Dogbert translates: "It's a downer. Someone probably gets a disease and loses the farm." I expected that out of The Reading Room. Gladly, I was disappointed. Disappointment isn't too far away from The Reading Room though; indeed, someone got a disease within the first five minutes and died, leaving her widower husband a challenge. Notably, there was the challenge of building a reading room - like a free library where you can't check anything out - using the couple's personal library in a depressed, urban area near their home. In a way, The Reading Room is actually different from one of those standard, urban dramas. While it begins much the same way - bad neighborhood, gangs, all the things we've come to expect - it rapidly evolves into a series of puzzles. How to get people in, how to keep people in, how to protect the building, even how to survive an incursion by the local, and surprisingly sinister, church. All in all, The Reading Room is a real surprise. Its almost predictable level of schmaltz has been notably toned down and the emphasis on problem solving is a welcomed feature. The Reading Room should easily prove to be solid family fare, and inspirational besides. |
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| c o n t a c t s / c r e d i t s c o n t r i b u t e |
