FREEDOM WRITERS [PG-13]
While some may find repugnant the idea of embracing a movie about a white teacher who focuses her inner-city students’ untapped talents and hidden desire to learn, this one, in the tradition of To Sir With Love, Stand & Deliver and Dangerous Minds, earns a gold star. Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) plays real-life Long Beach, CA teacher Erin Gruwell, who persevered long enough to connect with her students. Her introduction of The Diary Of Anne Frank as a teaching tool is a challenge to pull off on screen, but long-dormant writer-director Richard LaGravenese (Beloved) makes it work, finessing the “life in a war zone” metaphor so that we are not only sold on its mechanics, but moved by it, too. LaGravenese juggles subplots involving Gruwell’s nemesis (Imelda Staunton), whom he villainizes with considerable comic effect, her father (Scott Glenn) and boyfriend (Patrick Dempsey), whose departure is touching and believable. LaGravenese might have paid a little more attention to developing more of the kids, whom exist almost entirely in relation to the school, but in the end, he still provides that inspirational seed wanted and needed by so many. Not a bad way to start the year. –Robert Newton