It will be interesting to see what people make of this film. There’s been anticipation for it and here’s my guess for how the expectations will play out.

I think it will be a three way split of disappointment: people expecting it to be a combination of Crash and Dangerous Minds; people with baggage, good and bad from their teenage years; lastly, parents who recognize and may have gone through some of the problems that exist in any education system in any country at this time in history. I believe viewers will have a hard time wanting it to be something it isn’t.

As always, it’s hard to watch, let alone enjoy a film. To just let an interesting premise unfold. With a subject like this, people in the Crash camp will be hoping for some all-encompassing statement on race relations set in a Parisian neighborhood. Something to feel good and hopeful about, in a bittersweet way. If you allow your schoolyard memories to have a say, you’ll apply value judgments on teachers, parents and students and find yourself saying “good” student, “bad” teacher, “indifferent” parent. And if you’re a parent, what you see in this film will be all about hope. Hope that your child only has great teachers and is a great student and at the end maybe feeling slightly dashed in that hope.

All that having been said, I liked and enjoyed this film for what I feel it was. A year in the life of a classroom of students. Kids on the way to becoming adults. Cocksure, anxious, hormonal, under pressure to achieve and assimilate into whatever France is trying to define itself as in the new millennium. There are flawless scenes of give and take between teacher and students, sometimes built around an odd, sarcastic respect. There are no inspirational film contrivances depicting halcyon school days. François Bégaudeau (who is playing a version of himself from his own autobiographical novel) is not Mr. Chips, or the Nick Nolte loose cannon of Teachers. He’s a teacher with flaws. We don’t know him away from the school. That’s the point. There’s also no short-sighted administrator to rail against. Rather a system shambling along and all concerned having moments of being shortsighted in how to reach and educate these children.

Other reviews have talked of the confined space of the classroom, the claustrophobia, the tension, but I didn’t feel this. At least not to the degree that it seemed to be part and parcel of the film. I just felt a constant energy. Francois is teaching grammar, after all, and each stalling, questioning curve ball his students lob he strives to turn into a teachable moment. As happens with any teacher, good, bad or great, success and failure ping pongs back and forth in those moments.

The film’s shortcomings are that there are scenes with a staginess to them. Early on, a teacher goes into a frustrated rant about his students. For all their stalling to learn, a student can suddenly be shown as brighter or with more depth than is probable for the character. Portraying the mishmash of cultures that make up the school, parents at conference time are sort of “cookie-cuttered” as characters. Immigration and assimilation are immense concerns in France and others felt this cut a huge swath of subtext in the film. My take is that the performances are so naturalistic, just as teenagers will really do, they’ll pick a fight using something as an excuse they really don’t understand and only think they should believe in at this point in their lives. Their own background, or their attempts at being an individual. We try to define ourselves.  We defend ourselves and others. Others decide to respect us or we decide to respect them. Maturity and pride in who you are mean not reacting to button-pushing for it’s own sake. By the same token, others need to open their eyes a little and look at our reasons for reacting a certain way. Witness the scene where a young man talks about how he respects another student’s mother and the stymied reaction he gets. Throughout the film, it’s these kids’ performances that keep raising astute questions about themselves and this system.

People will be disappointed with this film because the hard case children weren’t reached, tests weren’t passed as well as could be, and a French neighborhood doesn’t end up a happy melting pot. It’s not a film that really even raises questions. As a good teacher does, it starts the learning process just offering the subject, then you’re supposed to ask the questions.

Full disclosure: So people can decide if I’m full of beans about any of this, I was a Preschool teacher for 16 years and have a stepdaughter and two grandkids. – [DVD]

Drama

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 8/11/09

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