I Am David

NEW YORK (CNS) -- A young boy"s odyssey from oppression to freedom becomes a journey of self-discovery in the life-affirming family adventure "I Am David" (Lions Gate).

Director Paul Feig"s visually handsome adaptation of Anne Holm"s novel is, plainly put, a wonderful movie.

The small, simply told tale is intelligent yet unpretentious, tender without being trite, edifying as well as engaging. It has moments of genuine drama, but more importantly it has heart, and the gentle message it imparts -- that life is a gift -- is full of hope.

In other words, it is the perfect antidote for the formulaic and toxic excess of many mainstream movies.

Ben Tibber plays the hero of the title, a 12-year-old whose life has been defined by the barbed-wire boundaries of a dreary Bulgarian labor camp. David knows nothing of the outside world, not even the fate of his dissident parents, from whom he was separated years earlier.