by Noel Murray
… “Far from the Tree” is in no way discouraging. Dretzin invites viewers to spend time with the differently abled and their mothers and fathers, to give a fuller sense of both the highs and lows.
The results are highly affecting. When Dretzin spends a weekend at a convention for little people, where they forge bonds they can’t always find elsewhere — or when one couple describes how a therapist helped their profoundly autistic son communicate — it’s impossible not to be moved.
But this documentary also clarifies how its subjects’ stories extend beyond both the breakthroughs and the moments of incomprehensible devastation. This is a powerful movie about human nature and how no matter where we end up — and who we end up with — we wake up each day and adjust.
(To read the full review, please visit the Los Angeles Times.)
