Review of Freedom Writers (2007) by Chads. — 09 Mar 2007

"Freedom Writers" is a story that should rightfully be told...in the form of a documentary. As vanity projects go, this earnest telling of an extraordinary teacher and her second chance pupils isn't "Battlefield Earth"-bad, but it's close.

You get the sense that these inner-city kids have good hearts, however, the portrayal of their lives seem too sanitized to achieve versimilitude. At times, the film feels like "Boyz in the Hood" as rendered by the PAX network.

There's also an odd episode or two that is more documentary than drama, which is an odd mix since the film makes no attempt at realism. This well-meaning film tries too hard to grab our hearts. The success and redemption of these hard-knock kids is somewhat blunted by an unwillingness on the filmmaker's part to be more objective about its subject.