Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 20 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 30 Ratings

  • Starring: Adrien Brody, Christina Hendricks, Lucy Liu, Marcia Gay Harden
  • Summary: Henry Barthes is a substitute teacher who conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form a bond with either his students or colleagues. A lost soul grappling with a troubled past, Henry finds himself at a public school where an apathetic student body has created a frustrated, burned-out administration. Inadvertently becoming a role model to his students, while also bonding with a runaway teen who is just as lost as he is, Henry finds that he’s not alone in a life and death struggle to find beauty in a seemingly vicious and loveless world. (Tribeca Film) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 20
  2. Negative: 6 out of 20
  1. Reviewed by: Anthony Lane
    Mar 12, 2012
    80
    It is the greatest biblio-climax of any film since "Fahrenheit 451," although Truffaut's prayer was that reading might yet survive calamity and carry the torch of the civilized. Detachment snufffs out that faith; books it warns us, are the first thing to go. [19 March 2012, p.91]
  2. Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    Mar 19, 2012
    75
    Nobody's idea of "Mr. Holland's Opus," but it winds up in a similar place, more or less.
  3. Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    May 17, 2012
    60
    The shriller its didacticism, the more unhinged it becomes. But even at its most ludicrous - when it is shouting into your ear - its sheer audacity grabs your attention.
  4. Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    Mar 16, 2012
    38
    [Director Kaye's] dedication to the material is admirable, but his tactic of following one dismal development with an even more depressing one comes to seem monotonous and pointless.

See all 20 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Superb movie with great messages for the US education system (and the worldwide one, too) !! A must for parents, students and professional teachers. Also, proof that small budget films are usually much much better than their blockbusters cousins. Expand
  2. 8
    Great cast Adrien Brody is brilliant it's nice for a change to go see a movie that makes you sit up and think about life and how every day is a challenge and effects people in different ways and how we make it from day to day with whatever problems we have its a must see movie which will hopefully give you a new out look on life. Expand
  3. Altho the film is a nearly relentless downer, the acting is terrific. All that makes my rating so low is that an awful lot of what the characters do makes little sense since we don't know who they are or what their story is. That being said, is it worth watching? Very much so, you might even leave with a pinch of hopefulness. Expand
  4. Adrien Brody's performance is very good, and the movie ends up being an inspiring drama.

See all 7 User Reviews

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