FAR FROM THE TREE – Review

As the Summer movie season winds down, one type of film not usually known for hitting theatres this time of year seems to be finding an appreciative and big audience. Of course the major box office news has been dominated by action films, particularly the superhero flicks from AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR to INCREDIBLES 2. That’s really no big shock. But another surprise story of these warm months is the respectable (for these low budgets) grosses of several documentary feature films. Sure some of the bigger hits focus on entertainment figures like Fred Rogers and Whitney Huston, but a few have caused a stir over their compelling family stories, like the heart-wrenching THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS. Now comes another feature doc about family, no make that families. That’s because it’s part of a sub-genre of documentaries that are also anthologies. Multi-story movies have been a staple for many years, especially in the horror genres with such diverse offerings as DEAD OF KNIGHT to the more recent VHS flicks. The last anthology doc that made a splash might have been FREAKANOMICS, based on the book in 2010. It just so happens that this new entry is also based on an acclaimed book. It profiles families in which the offspring differed greatly from their parents. Or as they saying goes, they “sprang” FAR FROM THE TREE.

Said book is the work of Andrew Solomon who serves as the “host’ or narrator that ties all these stories together (much like the “Crypt Keeper” in the original TALES FROM THE CRYPT horror anthology). Solomon tells of growing up as an “odd duck” in an upper class East Coast family in the late sixties. When he realized he was gay, he “came out” to his parents, who rejected him (their hostility is shocking). Solomon channeled his heartache into scholarly research into other families in which the children were quite different from their folks. We then meet four such families. First is the story of Jason, who gained some fame in the mid seventies when his parents rejected the “experts’ and set out to teach their Down Syndrome child. At that time (just a touch over 40 years ago) the medical community believed such children couldn’t fit into to society and told mothers to give them up. But Jason and his Mom and Dad proved them wrong. We see news footage from that period with Jason even appearing on TV’s “Sesame Street”. Now at age 41, he works in an office delivering mail and lives in a supervised house with two other mentally challenged men. But Mom is concerned that Jason is drifting quickly into a fantasy world (after the death of his adored papa). The next subject is Jack, a young autistic man. In interviews, his parents talk of how the bright happy infant slowly vanished. They vent their frustrations and despair, but they never give up hope. That faith pays off when jack is finally matched with an unorthodox therapist who breaks through to him. The film shifts to shy Loini, a teenage girl dealing with dwarfism. Her encouraging mother takes her to the St. Louis meeting of The Little People of America, where she breaks out of her shell as she meets people “like her”. One of them is the slightly older, more vocal Leah who is trying to start a family with her husband, another “little person” who uses a motorized chair, Joe. But the last profile may be the most compelling. In Texas we meet a middle aged husband and wife as they root through the contents of a storage closet. After a few moments, the wife asks about the location of their eldest son’s school sports team photos. The husband replies in a low soft tone, “The cops took it”. We then learn that their high school-age son Trevor is serving life in prison without parole for the brutal senseless murder of an eight year-old boy. The film makers follow them and their other son and daughter has they try to carry on even as they respond to the occasional collect call from prison. Intercut with the progress of Solomon’s life, the film makers revisit the families, as they deal with their triumphs and challenges.

Director Rachel Dretzin deftly tells these family tales with an unobtrusive hand, letting the principals relate their history without jarring, flashy camera or optical techniques and an off camera narrator to prod their responses. There’s no re-enactments, no title cards (other than first names) or animation, just interviews and candid footage (new and home videos), aside from the occasional archival TV news footage (in the stories of Jason and Trevor). Solomon’s story pops in and out, between segments, and often, sometimes bridging the other tales, but usually compelling on its own, as with the sleazy 42nd Street “doctors’ who could “cure” men of sexual shyness via “assistants’ when the Big Apple developed some mold in the 70’s. Speaking of that decade, Jason’s story becomes an examination of what happens when fame fades. He was a media darling then, but now there’s little “unique” in his challenges. This may be a big reason for his belief that his mythic idol actually exists on the other side of the globe (Norway). After the moving film from 2016, LIFE, ANIMATED, Jack and his parents crisis is a bit familiar, but the raw emotions when his mother vents her frustration is heartbreaking. As with Jason, Loini’s tale of breaking away really shifts gears, smoothly leading into the love story of Leah and Joe. They’re man and wife as true partners, a united, supportive team in their quest to expand their family (aided considerably by Joe’s snarky sense of humor). But this team has a great team behind them as we meet their kind, incredibly nurturing parents, whose joy provides some epic tear-jerking scenes. They’re all upbeat, life-affirming stories about “can do” families. Then there’s the family of Trevor, perhaps the most compelling of the quartet of profiles. There are no upbeat scene beats. The tragedy will never end (much as with the family of the child who Trevor dispatched). At least Trevor still exists, a “living ghost’ in a limbo of collect phone conversations (which sound much like a faraway college student’s weekly “check in”). The only triumph is the continuation of the family (such a horrific incident will split most marriages). Mom and Dad forge on, mainly for their remaining children, as they confess that they’ll never have kids for fear that murderous gene could be passed on. Trevor’s parents  have even erased him. When meeting new people, they only mention the two children. If the truth is found out, questions are raised that can’t be answered (“How did your parenting skills create a killer?”, “What did you do?”). It’s engrossing, powerful film making, worthy of its own solo feature. But it’s just one component that makes FAR FROM THE TREE another of the year’s best feature documentaries.

4 out of 5

FAR FROM THE TREE opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas