Adrien Brody Leads Ensemble Cast in Teacher Drama
Created: March 17, 2012 Last Updated: March 17, 2012
Adrien Brody in the drama ?Detachment,? a film about a substitute teacher who finds a connection among students and teachers during his latest assignment. (Tony Kaye/ Tribeca Film)
Do not blame teachers for their students? behavioral problems. The fault lies with irresponsible parents argues the latest ?Blackboard Jungle?-type social issue drama. Yet perhaps some kids are just soulless punks, who need a sub like Tom Berenger in the unabashedly politically incorrect ?The Substitute.? What they get instead is Adrien Brody in Tony Kaye?s ?Detachment.?
Henry Barthes is the long reliever of substitute teachers. He can come in for an extended stretch and then leave with no emotional attachments holding him back. He is not a terrible guy. In fact, he seems to care about his addled grandfather?s well-being. At least he is interested enough to bully the nursing staff whenever he feels necessary. However, his students are another matter entirely, particularly at his new school.
Lucy Liu in the drama ?Detachment,? a film about a substitute teacher who finds a connection among students and teachers during his latest assignment. (Tony Kaye/ Tribeca Film)
All his fellow faculty members feel downtrodden, and the cynical board is scapegoating the principal. Yet, somehow Barthes makes an impression on students by keeping his cool, except, of course, when he talks about ?No Child Left Behind? (NCLB).
\>");?Detachment? is an overstuffed traffic jam of a movie, but some of the conflicting parts are quite good. Every member of the all-star ensemble gets their solo spotlight and most of them nail it. It sounds highly unlikely, but James Caan and Lucy Liu have a particularly moving moment of consolation together.
Frankly, ?Detachment? might have worked better as a theater piece, stitching together dramatic monologues. Structurally, it is better suited to such an approach, using sociological interviews with Barthes as the narrative framing device.
We understand Kaye likes teachers. That is all well and good. However, his diatribes against NCLB are a bit off point.
Without question, Barthes is the sort of sad-sack character Brody was born to play. Indeed, his morose screen persona works well in this context. Nearly everyone has memorable moments in the film, but they are often not given adequate space to breathe. Strangely too cute around the margins, ?Detachment? earns a fair measure of respect but never really pulls it all together. It opens this Friday (March 16) in New York at the Village East.
Director: Tony Kaye
Cast: Adrien Brody, Christina Hendricks, Marcia Gay Harden, James Caan, Lucy Liu, Tim Blake Nelson, Blythe Danner, Bryan Cranston
Running Time: 97 minutes
Joe Bendel writes about independent film and lives in New York. To read his most recent articles, please visit http://jbspins.blogspot.com
Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/arts-entertainment/movie-review-detachment-206691.html
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