Rolling out on iTunes pre-release, Detachment offers a glimpse into post-recession inner city school drama. Directed by Tony Kaye (American History X) the high school drama stars Adrien Brody, Betty Kaye (the director’s daughter), Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River) and the rest of the cast is filled in with a peppering of well – knowns like Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Lucy Liu, James Caan (Misery), Blythe Danner (Meet the Fockers), and a few others.
The story follows substitute teacher Mr. Barthes (Brody) who spends his time going from school to school filing in for long teacher absences while a permanent replacement is found. Mr. Barthes struggles to distance himself from his students who are living the “American Nightmare.” Mr. Barthes has himself been dealt a heavy hand with a father dying of Alzheimer’s, teaching in a school that may be shut down, and students who are violently discontented. To perk things up, he decides to date a suspicious neurotic (Hendricks) and take in a teenage prostitute.
This movie is soaked in the sad, sprinkled with the shitty, and served with a side of depressing. Don’t get me wrong, the movie is great but if you’re on anti-depressants, this film isn’t for you. It’s a bit like watching a school that’s been diagnosed with terminal cancer struggling to keep hope that it will find a cure while knowing that a cure will never come. (the concept of doublethink is ironically the first lesson Mr. Barthes teaches in class)
The only comic relief the movie provides is the amazeballs cursing commentary of the students which would be funny were it not actually maliciously cruel and dripping with personal pain. This dialogue is best highlighted by a spaztastic moment where James Caan spends several minutes mocking the absurd threat of a student by repeating it in every accent he can think of. Indeed, even the young students are resigned to the hopeless reality that their lives will be a meaningless trip to an early demise. Lucy Liu‘s role as the guidance councilor also takes a moment to flip out on a student in hopes of communicating to an apathetic student the fore mentioned inevitability.
All the negativity aside, Brody gives one of the most impressively understated performances of his career. The script is raw, real, and relentless. Kaye’s bold choice to film it as if it were part documentary hammers the fact that this film mimics real problems faced by real schools. This choice is at first jarring (filming “documentary” scenes with an actor as well known as Brody is a bit jarring but the actor pulls it through).
SPOILER ALERT – Again, the film is great even if depressing. It’s a realist’s version of Dangerous Minds if the acting had been good, the students had been brutally vile, the favorite student had been committed suicide with a poison cupcake, the school had been closed by the government, and the teacher’s father had died alone in a hospital and his only friend was diagnosed with HIV and taken away by child services. END SPOILER
But even in the trailer, the film doesn’t portray itself as anything different. It tells you upfront, the world you’re about to see sucks. Our refusal to believe things won’t all work out in the end is a testament to how successful Hollywood has been at painting over reality. And, it is a testament to brave film making that this director fought for the integrity to save this film from being given that same Hollywood makeover.
Review: A relentlessly real portrayal of the death of a school. 8/10
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