The Penguin Lessons (12A)

English teacher Tom Michell arrives in 1976 Buenos Aires to take up a position at St George's College under by-the-book headmaster Buckle. During a vacation in Punta Del Este in Uruguay with science teacher Tapio, Tom tries to impress a woman by rescuing a stricken penguin from an oil slick on a beach. The rejuvenated bird bonds with the Englishman and he returns to Argentina with the penguin concealed in a bag, casually ignoring the "no smoking and no pets" policy for school staff.

LondonNet Film Review

The Penguin Lessons (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

Penguins are among a vibrant class of flightless birds. Fittingly, this gently paced, comedy drama from The Full Monty’s Oscar-nominated director, Peter Cattaneo, flaps its wings but fails to achieve lift-off. Based on Tom Michell’s memoir, The Penguin Lessons follows a muddled curriculum of genre staples: the unconventional teacher who inspires dismissive students to academic excellence, mismatched buddies who seek common ground on a haphazard road trip, and a mischievous animal who coaxes a cold-hearted human out of their shell…

Cattaneo’s picture frames this hotchpotch with turbulent events in 1976 Argentina, when a coup d’etat displaced Isabel Peron as President. Thousands of impassioned opponents to the newly installed military regime vanished without trace. Screenwriter Jeff Pope previously collaborated with actor Steve Coogan on Philomena, Stan & Ollie and The Lost King.

Both men are more comfortable with comedy than meaty political discourse, evidenced when the bumbling British educator fails to correctly referee a rugby match between Argentine students and wearily quips: “I prefer my balls round.” Strain is visible when subject matter turns deadly serious and Coogan is asked to singlehandedly bear the emotional weight of scenes saturated with guilt and grief. Those tonal coin tosses between comedy and heartrending tragedy become more jarring as the picture waddles into its challenging second hour.

English teacher Tom Michell (Coogan) arrives in 1976 Buenos Aires to take up a position at St George’s College under by-the-book headmaster Buckle (Jonathan Pryce). Tom will be shaping the minds of privileged teenage boys and is instructed to keep any opinions to himself to avoid drawing unwanted attention to the private school. During a vacation in Punta Del Este in Uruguay with science teacher Tapio (Bjorn Gustafsson), Tom tries to impress a woman (Mica Breque) by rescuing a stricken penguin from an oil slick on a beach.

The rejuvenated bird bonds with the Englishman and he returns to Argentina with the penguin concealed in a bag, casually ignoring the “no smoking and no pets” policy for school staff. The animal becomes an unofficial mascot for enraptured students but reality gatecrashes the reverie when school cleaner Sofia (Alfonsina Carrocio) is snatched off the street by the military regime and her grandmother, Maria (Vivian El Jaber), who also works at St George’s, seeks the truth about Sofia’s potentially tragic fate.

The Penguin Lessons does not teach us anything new or surprising about murky facets of human behaviour or the political volatility in 1970s South America when anguished cries from families of the “disappeared” went unanswered. The titular bird scene-steals with aplomb as Coogan tentatively confronts his character’s reluctance to act when confronted with injustice. Archive footage over the end credits achieves a teary-eyed wistfulness and piercing emotional clarity that eludes Cattaneo’s dramatisation.

– Sarah Lee