The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind review – inspiring true story

An inspiring true story is the basis for the family-friendly feature debut from Chiwetel Ejiofor, which gets a limited theatrical release before showing on Netflix. Prevented from attending school after a famine in Malawi left his family impoverished, William Kamkwamba put his gift for electronics to use by building a wind turbine to generate electricity. It’s a competent, if workmanlike, piece of direction from Ejiofor, who also appears in the film. And while it takes a few dramatic liberties and could have benefited from a tighter edit, there’s a swell of goodwill as the story progresses that is hard to resist.