(2012)
Drama
121 min.
Rated: PG
Grade: C+
Director: Daniel Barnz
Writers: Brin Hill, Daniel Barnz
Stars: Viola Davis, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Oscar Isaac and Holly Hunter | See full cast and crew
Two determined mothers, a bartender (Gyllenhaal) and a teacher (Davis), look to transform their children's failing inner city school. Facing a powerful and entrenched bureaucracy and corruption from the teacher's union president (Hunter) and the school's principal (Nunn), they risk everything to make a difference in the education and future of their children.
I expected this to be a good, uplifting, motivational movie, unfortunately it's sort of an Erin Brockovitch without the script, which is really too bad. It was a promising concept. It's not, however, as bad as the critics who have generally slammed it, but it's not a lot better either.
I have a suspicion that part
of the reason for the poor reception from the critics is the portrayal
of a negative side of the teachers unions. Union corruption is an
undeniable fact, unions have been mired in a culture of violence and
corruption since their inception, but we also know how in love Hollywood is
with organized labor. That is not my disenchantment with the
movie...it's the writing, direction and acting. Maggie Gyllenhaal's
tattooed character (and perhaps just Maggie herself) is the type of
woman that I and many other men find shrill, unappealing, caustic, annoying, unattractive
and consequently dredging up any meaningful sympathy for her is just
not that easy. Viola Davis is a fine actor but the script is not worthy
of her talents. To illustrate the sloppiness of this film, in one scene,
with Ms. Gyllenhall and Holly Hunter, the person in charge of
continuity stole the limelight. The actress it wearing a chain with a
medallion that as the camera angle changed the necklace kept changing
from inside her blouse to outside and back inside again. 
Jamie Fitzpatrick (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Nona Alberts (Viola Davis)
are two
determined mothers who team up to
transform their children's failing inner city school. Jamie's daughter
Malia is dyslexic and cannot read and is not getting the help she needs
at her school. Jamie is rebuffed at every attempt to get Malia the
attention she needs to succeed. Nona is a teacher at Malia'a school, she
has a son, Cody, who also has learning disabilities and she is
experiencing similar frustrations. 
Jamie
is determined to help her daughter and will and enlists a reluctant
Nona in a plan for the parents to 'take over the school' and rescue it
from the corrupt teachers union and a school board, both hopelessly
bureaucratic and rife with cronyism. 
Their motivation takes advantage
of a newly enacted "parent trigger" law that allows parents and teachers
to reclaim failing schools. To accomplish this they need the backing of
a specific number of teachers and parents in order to petition the
school board for a hearing and vote. Jamie will stop at nothing,
including hooking up with one of the male teachers, Michael Perry (Oscar
Isaac) in order to get his signature and support. Facing a powerful
and entrenched bureaucracy, they risk everything to make a difference in
the education and future of their children.
Their motivation takes advantage
of a newly enacted "parent trigger" law that allows parents and teachers
to reclaim failing schools. To accomplish this they need the backing of
a specific number of teachers and parents in order to petition the
school board for a hearing and vote. Jamie will stop at nothing,
including hooking up with one of the male teachers, Michael Perry (Oscar
Isaac) in order to get his signature and support. Facing a powerful
and entrenched bureaucracy, they risk everything to make a difference in
the education and future of their children. 
The
school board's Evelyn Riske (Holly Hunter) attempts to bribe Jamie with
a scholarship for Malia to a special school, when that fails the board
launches a personal smear campaign against both Jamie and Nona. You know
how the story will end. Yes, of course you do, otherwise there would
have been no point in making the movie in the first place. Nothing wrong
with knowing the outcome as far as storytelling goes, it's how you get
to the end of the story that really matters. That is where this heavy
handed, melodrama gets bogged down. There is a lot of talent in the cast
but their talent is squandered on a clumsy script and lame direction
based on stereotypes and cliche. 
The
film has been out for a little over a week and I guess the word of
mouth has been, well 'not so good', I was the only one in the theater at
this 9:25 showing on a Saturday night.
Cast
Jamie Nona Malia
Michael Perry Breena Harper Evelyn Riske
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