Film Brain reviews this drama, based on the best-selling memoir, where Steve Coogan's grumpy teacher makes an unusual friend - but maybe handles too difficult a subject matter for a movie about a cute penguin...
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00:00Hello and welcome to Projector, and on this episode, Steve Coogan p-p-p-picks up a penguin in the Penguin Lessons.
00:23In 1976, Tom Michelle, pleber Steve Coogan, takes a job teaching English at St. George's College in Argentina
00:29on the eve of a military coup. On a trip to Uruguay, Tom rescues and cleans a penguin from an oil spill,
00:36who bonds with him despite Tom's attempts to get rid of it, forcing him to smuggle it back to the school in Argentina.
00:41The Penguin soon becomes popular with his students, who name it Juan Salvador, and helps Tom improve their grades.
00:48The Penguin Lessons is based on Tom Michelle's memoir The Same Name from 2015,
00:52which he initially self-published after being encouraged by his late wife.
00:55It then drew a huge amount of attention, leading it to eventually be picked up by, who else, Penguin Books.
01:02You can even see some of Michelle's personal 8mm camera footage of the actual Juan Salvador Penguin and his students
01:08at the very end of the film, as the penguin swims across the school's pool, a moment which is recreated in the film itself.
01:15The core story is intact. Michelle really did teach in Argentina during the dictatorship with a pet penguin,
01:20but there's a lot of changes on its way to the screen, so it's best to say that it's more inspired by a true story than based on a true story.
01:29You know, that careful distinction between most of this is true and most of this is fiction.
01:34The film is adapted by Jeff Pope, who is a regular collaborator with Steve Coogan,
01:39most notably on the Oscar-nominated Philomena, but also on Stan and Ollie and the recent misfire The Lost King,
01:46so he has a lot of experience in bringing true stories to the screen.
01:49Pope wrote the film with Coogan in mind and changed the main character to better fit him and bring some drama into the story.
01:56For a start, Coogan is significantly older than the real-life Michelle, who was in his 20s at the time of the film,
02:04so they've aged him up a bit, but they've also given him a more world-weary attitude that was not that of his real-life counterpart.
02:11I've seen Coogan interviewed alongside the real Michelle to promote the film,
02:14and he recalls that he was so eager to travel and see the world that he applied for a job in Argentina
02:20almost completely oblivious to the political situation at that period of history,
02:24and admits he probably got it because there was likely a shortage of competition given the circumstances.
02:31The film is directed by Peter Catanio, who is still best known for the monster British hit The Full Monty,
02:36which is still pretty heavily influential in the local film industry today,
02:40and more recently had success with Military Wives, which also very loosely adapted a true story to film.
02:46And if you've seen the marketing for this in the UK, you've probably seen a barrage of ads with upbeat music,
02:52filled with quotes calling it endlessly funny,
02:55and humorous bits of Coogan wrestling with a penguin promising an uplifting comedy.
02:59The Penguin Lessons does have some of that,
03:02but in reality, the tone of the film itself is a little bit different.
03:07The film has to navigate a bit of a precarious tonal balance,
03:10being a combination of the inspirational teacher movie like Dead Poets Society by way of Mr. Popper's penguins,
03:16with I'm Still Here playing out in the background.
03:19And if that all seems like a bit of a weird mix of elements that's kind of awkward,
03:24it is, yeah.
03:25Although it perhaps differentiates itself from other examples of the inspiring teacher story
03:30by centering itself around a teacher who needs a bit of inspiration himself,
03:34as the last thing the film version of Michelle wants to do is make a difference.
03:38If anything, he's taking a job in Argentina largely to hide away from the world,
03:43and try to do as little work as possible,
03:46whether it's spend his classes reading from the newspaper,
03:48or ducking away from teaching football to take a long nap on a nearby bench.
03:53The more we spend time with him, the more we realise that Michelle's lack of effort and cynicism
03:57is largely a defensive mechanism.
04:00He doesn't give much of a dare about anyone or anything,
04:02and he doesn't expect anyone to give a dare about him either.
04:05Much of his company is with a neighbouring science teacher, Tapio,
04:08played by Bjorn Gustafsson, who is recently divorced,
04:11and can be a bit dry and dull when he's not still fixated upon his ex-wife,
04:16but does have a degree of optimism that irritates Michelle.
04:20Tapio mentions that he's fascinated by other people and their stories,
04:23but Michelle definitely isn't, and certainly isn't going to open up to him.
04:27Coogan's played a lot of curmudgeons in his time,
04:30but this time Coogan has a bit of a sadness between the character's wit
04:34and his exasperation at not being left on his own.
04:38And it's clear that the film version of Michelle carries a tragedy in his past
04:41that has made him into the bitter person that he is.
04:44And much of the film's better first half is centred around Michelle and the Penguin,
04:48even if, in the film, he saves its life not out of altruism,
04:52but more just trying to get some cheap gratification,
04:54trying to oppress a woman that he wants to sleep with.
04:57Alas, he doesn't get the girl,
04:59and he ends up with a smelly penguin that he doesn't want following him instead.
05:03The film definitely toes the line with just how far an audience will still like its main character,
05:08with how heartless Michelle can be,
05:10as he tries to get the penguin to just leave him alone.
05:13From looking at a beach filled with dead, oil-covered penguins,
05:17and trying to feign his way out of helping,
05:19just going,
05:20Oh dear, there really is nothing we can do.
05:23Or trying to leave the penguin behind in his hotel room.
05:26It's good that Coogan can still be charming,
05:28even when he's playing a bastard.
05:30This leads to not one, but two consecutive scenes
05:33where Michelle deals with the authorities.
05:35First, the police in Uruguay,
05:36and they're at the border in Argentina,
05:38neither of whom want to be stuck with it either,
05:41and threaten him with arrest if he doesn't take the bloody penguin.
05:45Having both of these scenes back-to-back is a little repetitive,
05:49but the second is the funnier one,
05:51in a humorously British version of diplomacy,
05:53as the official tries to haggle a bribe,
05:55and Michelle thinks that's an easy way of getting out of it,
05:58by not paying it and getting rid of the burden,
06:01and neither side ends up getting what they want in the end.
06:04Of course, it helps that Juan Salvador is absolutely adorable,
06:07as played by two different penguins,
06:09and while I don't think there's very much competition,
06:11I think I can safely say this is the best performance from a penguin
06:14I've ever seen in a film,
06:16or at least one that wasn't animated.
06:18I don't know, I've never seen any of the Happy Feet films.
06:20He waddles across the frame sweetly,
06:22he squawks and chirps very frequently,
06:25and the film often cuts the penguin in reaction close-ups
06:27in a way that make him feel like a character,
06:29and not a live animal being tented by a fish just out of the frame.
06:33You even get a few fairly amusing moments
06:35where people confess their secrets and feelings to Juan Salvador,
06:38because the penguin's silent dignity
06:39brings that kind of thing out of people.
06:42They feel like they can open up to him,
06:44because he's not going to judge them for it,
06:46he's not going to say anything.
06:47And the success of a cute animal movie
06:50is how much you get the audience to fall in love with it,
06:52and the title penguin passes that test with flying colours,
06:56despite not actually having the ability to fly.
06:59And you can definitely see what the filmmakers wanted to do here.
07:01They wanted to have a light-hearted penguin story
07:03add some welcome comic relief to the darker dramatic themes
07:07that give the movie more substance.
07:09Now, in principle, that seems like it could work.
07:12So you get plenty of light-hearted mishaps
07:14as Michelle tries to keep the penguin a secret,
07:16especially since the school has a strict no-pets policy.
07:20But needless to say,
07:21an unusual pet that has an appetite for fish,
07:24a distinctive ogre,
07:25and a propensity to crap all over the place
07:27is quite difficult to hide.
07:29When Michelle reveals this secret to her students,
07:32it works as a way of finally getting their attention,
07:35and offers them the chance to feed the penguin
07:37if they behave well.
07:38And a few of the students
07:39get little mini-arcs themselves throughout the movie,
07:42in particular one bullied kid
07:44who is probably the strongest student in the class.
07:47It basically ends up being the most successful attempt
07:49at a tutor bringing in a pet as a teaching aid
07:51since Arnold brought in that ferret in Kindergarten Cop.
07:55And that combination of family-friendly animal hijinks
07:57and an early class learning discipline and wisdom
08:00fits quite well together,
08:02but unfortunately comes unstuck
08:03when it's placed against the backdrop
08:04of a country's fall into dictatorship,
08:07which puts it in pretty sharp relief at times.
08:10That's especially true in the second half of the film,
08:12where it starts to become more prominent,
08:14and the penguin starts to become second banana
08:16in his own movie,
08:17whereas that Banana Republic.
08:19Peter Cattano has had success mixing comedy and drama before,
08:22but there's a bit of a difference
08:24between the steel mills closing in Sheffield
08:26and a country undergoing a military coup.
08:29And for those who don't know,
08:30this is a dark period in Argentina's history,
08:33known as the Dirty War,
08:35where thousands of people were disappeared and killed.
08:38And I don't know about you,
08:39but that's a heavy subject matter
08:41that's probably not suitable
08:43for a film about an unlikely friendship with a penguin,
08:46but it especially feels uncomfortable
08:48given the echoes with the current political moment right now.
08:51At first, the film keeps the political turmoil
08:54on the sidelines,
08:55finding some mild humour in a sequence
08:57where Michelle is given his pay
08:58and told he needs to spend it all immediately
09:01because tomorrow it will be worth less than it does today.
09:05During his time at St. George's,
09:06Michelle befriends his housekeeper, Maria,
09:08played by Vivian Algeber,
09:10and her granddaughter, Sophia,
09:11played by Alfonso Carioco,
09:13who is a political activist.
09:15And you can pinpoint the exact moment
09:17where the time of the film changes,
09:18in a scene where Sophia is vanished on the street
09:21right before Michelle's eyes,
09:23who is too scared to intervene and try to stop it.
09:27Michelle is as much upset by his own fear and cowardice
09:30in this moment as the disappearance of Sophia itself,
09:33which forces him to confront the fact
09:35that he does care about people
09:36as much as he attempts not to,
09:39and tries to use what power he has to get her released.
09:42This isn't helped by the fact
09:43that the school's strict headmaster, Buckle,
09:45played by Jonathan Price,
09:47is reluctant to get involved.
09:49His encouragement to the staff on Michelle's arrival
09:51is, if you have any strong opinions,
09:53keep them to yourselves.
09:55And there are political reasons
09:56why the school cannot get involved
09:58in trying to lobby on Sophia's behalf.
10:00And that, in a way,
10:02embodies the issue with the Penguin lessons,
10:04in that the way it attempts to tackle
10:06living through the rise of fascism
10:07feels like it's simultaneously too much and not enough.
10:11It's too much in the sense
10:12that it sits uneasily with all the Penguin hijinks,
10:15that it feels like two different movies at times,
10:17but it treats the subject matter timidly
10:20in an attempt to make it more palatable,
10:22which undermines it.
10:24No one is expecting this to hit as hard as I'm Still Here,
10:27which looked at similar events happening in Brazil
10:29around the same time,
10:31but you can't help but think the filmmakers
10:33have misjudged the tone.
10:35But it also doesn't help the film tackles the subject
10:37entirely from the point of view of an outsider.
10:40This isn't Michelle's country,
10:42and he can easily leave, unlike its citizens.
10:45In fact, he literally does so early on,
10:48when the school closes for a week after a bombing.
10:50That's when Michelle takes his trip to neighbouring Uruguay
10:53so he can party.
10:54Even the school has a certain distance from events,
10:57so there's a privilege to Michelle
10:58that it never really confronts.
11:01It doesn't get in the weeds of how or why
11:04this situation has happened,
11:05only that it has.
11:07And too much of it is framed for Michelle's point of view
11:10of how it, and specifically Sophia's capture,
11:13impacts upon him rather than the effect
11:16it is having on the people themselves.
11:18Even the moment where he decides to confront his own fears
11:20and tries to take matters in his own hands
11:22is something that doesn't really have any lasting threat
11:25or sense of jeopardy to his own person.
11:28He gets into trouble afterwards,
11:30but it's almost resolved immediately by the next cut.
11:33So you do end up getting the feeling
11:35that this massive moment of political upheaval
11:37largely serves in the story
11:39as a way for Michelle to confront his own personal pain
11:42and humanity,
11:43which Sophia serves as a connection to,
11:45and even the penguin itself later on,
11:47and that reduces the Argentinians to the periphery.
11:51It just all feels a little bit tone deaf.
11:54I had mixed feelings about the penguin lessons
11:56because when it's trying to be a cute movie
11:58about a man and his penguin,
11:59it mostly works.
12:01Yes, it's a formula story,
12:02but Coogan's dry wit and a heart-meltingly sweet penguin
12:05means that side of it is pleasant and cosy.
12:07And I won't lie,
12:09I did have quite a few chuckles,
12:11and yes,
12:11I did get a bit emotional towards the end.
12:13There was definitely a lump in my throat.
12:16But the film doesn't balance that very well
12:18with its more serious elements,
12:19and at times it's almost enough
12:21to give you complete whiplash.
12:23The attempts to mix light and dark,
12:25in my opinion,
12:25don't quite mesh,
12:27and in the screen that I was in,
12:28you could hear the audience's laughter
12:30start to dry up in the later parts
12:32as they realised this wasn't quite the cuddly movie
12:35they've been sold.
12:36It almost feels like it doesn't really quite know
12:38who it's meant to be aiming towards,
12:40fearing from family-friendly to middle-brow
12:42even shifting within scenes.
12:44It's never less than watchable,
12:46but you can't help but think
12:47the film is taking on a bigger fish
12:49than it can really handle,
12:50and almost risks trivialising its own subject matter.
12:54But hey,
12:55the penguin's really cute, right?
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13:17Until next time,
13:18I'm Matthew Buck,
13:20fading out.
13:21And I'll see you next time.
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