James Earl Jones stars as William Campbell, a wealthy businessman who grants his wife's dying wish by opening a free reading room in the depressed, gang-dominated inner city neighborhood where he grew up. Georg Stanford Brown's The Reading Room is a gentle and unchallenging Hallmark Channel original movie in which lives are touched as kids learn to read and gangbangers turn away from crime. Unfortunately, the story glosses over most of the snags a project such as William's would actually face in favor of a celebration of reading, gentle persistence, and giving back to the community. Admirable traits all, but most will find the treatment here simplistic to the point of banality. Optional. M. Johanson)
The Reading Room
MTI, 93 min., PG, DVD: $24.95, Oct. 24 Volume 22, Issue 1
The Reading Room
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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