Emmanuel's Gift

A touching and almost ridiculously inspirational story for all of us.

An inspirational movie about a inspiring figure: Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah of Ghana.

Sincere but fairly soft piece of ennobling journalism that gives a positive spin to some of Africa's seemingly intractable problems.

Yeboah is so levelheaded about his own accomplishments that the swelling score and emotional narration from Oprah Winfrey feel embarrassingly sentimental.

This feel-good profile barely touches on the political and cultural ramifications of Emmanuel's work. Narration by Oprah increases the aura of a civics lesson.

Samson Chan's color-saturated visuals add punch to the absorbing narrative, but overall this documentary plays like slickly packaged TV fare, right down to the plugs for Nike.

Sadly, Emmanuel's Gift is a powerful story of political change almost smothered by contrivance.