Why is a film this good being dumped on the market in January? That was my thought leaving the film this week. Well, to be honest my original thought was “Why are they dumping this film in January when they might wrangle a nomination for Hillary Swank to promote the film” but then again I’m a cynical industry member. The reviews came out and were glowing so again I wondered “Why?”.
I wish I had the answer to that besides an inept studio decision and an apathetic American public but the most important fact is that the film is indeed very good as the reviews will attest to. Writer/director Richard Lagravenese (Living Out Loud) has done a wonderful job bringing the life of Erin Gruwell to the screen. This is the story of a young teacher fresh out of school and her effort to make a difference with underprivileged students. The film starts with her first fumblings trying to reach them and her determination to find a way into their hearts and minds. A fantastic cast of young kids flesh out the roles of these students and you spend much of the film pulling for all of them to succeed.
Hillary Swank plays against type as a girl from a wealthy background who won’t give up when confronted with adversity. She teaches that quality to those in her class as well as other lessons which had tears falling from my eyes. In a time when our country spends 1.2 Trillion dollars on an utterly failed war in Iraq while ignoring our own growing poor a story like this forces you to confront our faltering educational system. Can’t the Bush Administration do anything right? We can’t get body armor to our soldiers for 1.2 Trillion and we can’t get our inner city school kids textbooks and a safe learning environment as well as a decent salary for our educators.
If you get a moment this weekend check this film out before it leaves the theaters. We should support this kind of film in the cinema and not just on DVD.
