We watch a lot of movies really. At least one a week on average. And that's what our family does. We don't watch a lot of regular TV, we don't have/won't make the time and what's on is generally pretty bad. And to be fair, our choices in movies, while not heinous, are certainly not always these tremendous thought-provoking cinema experiences. So when we originally saw the preview for the movie "Freedom Writers", I immediately profiled it. It was another one of those "fish out of water teacher makes difference in a school with unique teaching methods". Take the Lead did it with Antonio Banderas teaching inner city kids to dance. In Music of the Heart, Meryl Streep did it with violins. Jack Black did it with rock in the School of Rock. Gabe Kaplan did something to the Sweat Hogs..... That's my point: it appeared to be a tried and true formula movie with a couple stars. And that's what I was prepared to watch.First the standard stuff: Hillary Swank is not my favorite actress. To be fair, I've only seen her in one other movie (that I can recall): the Core. And she was pretty stiff in that one. In FW, she was okay...she was supposed to play a dorky white girl in an inner city LA school...and whether she was acting or not, she did a good job. Patrick Dempsey was serviceable as the less than understanding and supportive husband. And Scott Glenn did his usual, completely chewing up the screen with a very nice and understated role as her dad. That dude is a good actor, that's all I can say.
But what really pulled this out of the standard fair was 2 things: the kids playing kids were terrific. The fellas from the hood were nicely portrayed and had the right amount of toughness with a hint of humanity. But the girls were really well done too. The main girl who played Eva, did a terrific job of showing a tough Latino girl, completely loathing white people (with good reason from her point of view). She "naturally" learned to trust the teacher and stood up to the system, but it wasn't done in the "traditional" style. It seemed less easy and a little more real. And that's probably the biggest reason I liked this movie: the story.
In typical fashion, "you couldn't make up a story this good." And since this is based on a true story, I'd love to know what is Hollywood's "augmentation". I especially loved the arc dealing with the holocaust and how these kids, living in the middle of a war of their own, really had no idea what this "hollow cause" thing even was. And the real teacher (alledgedly) got them to see their situation better by introducing them to the Diary of Anne Frank and having them visit the LA Holocaust museum. They were apparently so moved by the topic that they raised funds themselves to get Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who hid Anne Frank to come and visit them. It was also about the "best" movie I've seen in portraying the gang violence in LA, especially how violent it is for girls and how much the various races dislike and distrust each other. There was also a sad but brilliant story element about the teacher, Erin Gruwell's, dealing with school administration and her department head. This old school teacher didn't want to let this new young thing give her/the school's precious "good books" to the "animals" in Erin's class...they'd just wreck them. They should be given work books and shoved through the system with as little expence and hassle as possible. A sickeningly honest portrayal of what I think really goes on in the good old public school system.
It's a movie that a lot of kids should watch and learn from. A lot of kids my age and beyond....