*Introduction*
Every once in a while a movie comes, that makes you forget your
surroundings and you just seem to get lost in the movie. While flying
from Philadelphia to Frankfurt, I was preparing myself for a boring
journey back home, when Lufthansa airlines decided to play **Freedom Writers**.
*The Plot*
Erin Gruwell (*Hillary Swank*) is a first time teacher and
is very enthusiastic about the job which requires her to teach a class
of cross cultural students who are culturally misaligned and not very
tolerant. From day one she gets a taste of what is to follow as she
struggles to get the attention of the class.
She tries to get help from the principal and other teachers in the
school to help resolve the situation and get the students interested in
studies. She is in for a rude shock as she finds that the teachers
despise the very fact that these students have been thrust upon the
school by the government and want the experiment to fail.
Cut from all support, Erin decides to get her own methods to effect
a change in the lives of the students. Does her methods pay off? Do the
students change? Check out this inspiring movie based on a true story
for the details.
*Critic’s Viewpoint*
From the moment Hillary Swank walks into the classroom, I was
completely lost in the movie and only got out when the movie came to an
end and food was served in the flight. The story was a real touching
one and the way Erin goes about her business with conviction and
without any real support from the real world is joy to see.
The performance of Hillary Swank in the title role is bound to win
a lot of accolades for the actresses. When the Oscar lots are drawn for
this year, I expect her to be amongst the favorites. Her depiction of
controlled emotions as well as desperation makes the whole movie all
the more realistic and the calmness with which she handles both her
personal and professional problems is quite inspiring.
But, what struck me more striking in the movie was the performance
of the kids. Each kid in the movie has given a very strong performance
and has managed to look convincing and realistic. April, Mario, Deanze
have all given good supporting performances to recreate the magic of
the book.
I think the adaptation of the book in the movie is excellent and
that shows in almost every scene which seems to be perfect, not too
long, not too short, just enough to deliver a message. Especially, the
scenes where in Erin starts some excercises to show the kids that they
are not too different and that all of them suffer from the same
problems. The other scene that I liked most was her discussion with
Mario as to what good killing others would do.
I think that such movies should be shown to the teens of today
especially in the multi-cultural environment that we live in these days
to teach them tolerance towards all. I recently read an article where a
school teacher had shown **Brokeback Mountain** to 12 year olds. Instead of such gay movies (literally), students can be shown movies like **Freedom Writers**.
The unfortunate part is probably this movie would never hit the
theatres in India as Hillary Swank is not a major attraction here in
India and there is no advertising glitz around this movie. So in a way
I must thank Lufthansa Airlines for showing the movie to me.
*Summary*
One of the better movies on tolerance and makes great sense in
today’s multicultural world. I would recommend this movie to all
teenagers - Caste no bar, Age no bar and Sex no bar.
I would give this movie a high 5 rating.