These days, it's rare to walk out of a documentary feeling happy, said Stephen Holden in The New York Times. If you're not guilty over your water consumption, you're angry at the president, or frustrated with the filmÂmakers. But God Grew Tired of Us, a charming film that covers much of the same territory as 2003's Lost Boys of Sudan, 'œis more user-friendly than its forerunner.' John Bul Dau, Panther Bior, and Daniel Pach are three of the most fortunate Lost Boys, said Joey Chase in Premiere. Forced out of their villages in the late 1980s by the threat of mass murder, they walked barefoot alongside thousands of others to a Kenya refugee community. A decade later they were given the opportunity to emigrate to America. We find the young men now settled in Pittsburgh and Syracuse, N.Y., struggling to understand indoor plumbing and neighborly etiquette while logging as many minimum-wage hours as possible. Their inspiring journeys will leave you feeling satisfied that 'œthe American dream is alive and well.' It could also leave you feeling a bit slimy, said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. The film's most uplifting moment, in which John meets his long lost mother at the airport, also proves its most vexing. As the woman becomes weak in the knees at the sight of her son, 'œthe film comes uncomfortably close to TV cliché.' Are we honoring these boys or 'œturning them into grist for the entertainment mill?'
Rating: PG
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