The Penguin Lessons

Okay, try this one on for size.  In the wake of a family tragedy, a disgruntled, middle-aged professor moves from his home in England to Argentina to teach English at a distinguished, private boarding school.  And he’s not teaching English as a Second Language; no, he’s teaching these boys the classics of literature and poetry – as well as the mechanics of grammar.  But his heart simply isn’t in teaching anymore.  This career move serves as more of an escape from reality than anything else.  And the mildly unruly boys are in no mood to learn.

While on an evening beach walk, he and his date rescue a penguin who is the unfortunate victim of an oil spill.  Once his date flies the coop, the professor is left to care for the penguin.  Finding this situation awkward, to say the least, the professor brings the penguin to class, where the boys are enlightened and find a new respect for their teacher and a new desire to learn.

Plot sounds contrived

If this doesn’t sound like a contrived Hollywood plot, I don’t know what does.  But here’s the caveat.  This story is true!  Director Peter Cattaneo’s and screenwriter Jeff Pope’s “The Penguin Lessons” is based on Tom Michell’s 2016 memoir of the same name.  Michell really did teach in Argentina for three years and unwittingly befriended a penguin during his first year.  The penguin, whom he names Juan Salvador, really did become and integral part of his classroom, and was instrumental in improving the marks of his students.

Somehow, it works

Again, I realize this sounds like some over-manipulated mash-up of “Dead Poets Society” with a Benji movie; but somehow, it works.  Credit to Cattaneo – who entertained us with “The Full Monty” almost 30 years ago – and to actor Steve Coogan, who plays Michell.  Coogan specializes in the sort of loveable, sad sack loser characters which personify Michell during the early scenes.  Then as the story advances, we can’t help but root for Michell because Coogan has endeared us to the character.

As might be expected, Juan Salvador is used more for comic relief than anything.  After all, he is a penguin; there isn’t much else he can do.  So yes, we have the anticipated scenes of penguin excrement at inopportune moments and his squawking at inopportune moments.  But what saves “The Penguin Lessons” is that it’s really not a comedy at all.

Not a comedy

This film takes place in 1976, during the brutal fascist military coup which would rule Argentina for the next seven years.  During the coup, soldiers would seemingly randomly apprehend people off the streets and take them to undisclosed locations, where they were often tortured for information regarding communist and other left-wing protest movements – whether they had any information to provide or not.

Weighty backdrop

The plot of “The Penguin Lessons” thickens when military authorities kidnap the teenage granddaughter of the school’s head chef and cleaning lady.  Michell, who is with her at the time, does nothing to interfere, or prevent the abduction.  Perhaps fearing for his own safety, Michell has always presented himself as one who simply wants to be left to his own devices and not become involved in things like social unrest.  This episode of inaction bothers him as the days roll on with no news of the granddaughter’s whereabouts.  This backdrop of state-sponsored anarchy gives “The Penguin Lessons” more heft than we expect, and saves the film from becoming nothing more than a silly animal picture.

Supporting cast

Newcomer Alfonsina Carrocio plays the granddaughter, and the head maid is veteran Argentinian actress Vivian El Jaber, in the film’s best supporting performance.  Also strong is Swedish comedian Bjorn Gustafsson as a science professor unable to overcome the fact that his wife has recently left him.  Given the fact that his character never shuts up, it’s not a stretch to imagine why his predicament is what it is.  And the comic relief he provides is far funnier than anything the penguin does.  Veteran British actor Jonathan Pryce plays the institution’s stiff-upper-lip headmaster.

Penguin used as a crutch

My only complaint is that Pope, who adapted the screenplay from Michell’s account, uses Juan Salvador as a sounding board for the various characters.  Many is the time Michell returns to his campus apartment to find students, teachers, and other employees pouring out their innermost thoughts to the penguin.  Now, the penguin obviously can’t respond, which cheapens the dialogue of the speaker to that of a gimmick.  My feeling is that had the screenplay been written smarter, we wouldn’t need characters to share their feelings; we would know them inherently.

Personal story of redemption

But everything else seems to work in “The Penguin Lessons.”  I know it shouldn’t; I know the plot still sounds contrived.  But I take a certain amount of pride in sharing that this film is weightier than viewers can possibly imagine.  It’s not the tragic account of South American social upheaval we saw in the recent Brazilian film “I’m Still Here,” but it works within the confines of a personal story about a man’s journey of redemption, and its effect on those around him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andy Ray‘s reviews also appear on https://townepost.com/