Review of Freedom Writers (2007) by Markb. — 19 Apr 2007

The "dedicated-teacher-teaching-in-the-slums/ ghetto/ projects/ 'hood (depending on when the film was made) who-Makes-A-Difference, dammit" movie genre, whether represented by Blackboard Jungle, Up the Down Staircase, Dangerous Minds and many others, has always been vulnerable to slings and arrows for focusing too little on the disadvantaged multiethnic students and too much on the nice White instructor who rescues them from their surroundings, if only for a few hours a day.

Freedom Writers is certainly susceptible to much of the same criticism, but much of it is rendered more or less irrelevant for one simple reason: Hilary Swank is so very good--and so enjoyable to watch--as the teacher.

In a performance that's every bit as praiseworthy as her far flashier, Oscar-winning turns in Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby, Swank isn't at all afraid to appear quite dorky and even rather condescendingly self-satisfied in her early scenes, when she hasn't quite reached her charges yet (and they resent her for seeming to talk down to them).

Not that she isn't tremendously likable here, too--especially after she gets her kids' attention by correlating urban gang violence with the beginnings of the Holocaust in a great, inspired near-monologue that's the perfect definition of thinking on one's feet.

In fact, if the one thing that Swank's last movie, the Brian DePalma-directed 51-car traffic wreck that was The Black Dahlia, actually did RIGHT was to demonstrate for the first time how incredibly sexy Swank can be in certain roles, then one of Freedom Writers' proudest accomplishments is that it shows off how formidably cute she can be in others.

The film works because of Swank, and also because real-life superteacher Erin Grunell's success in developing her students' self-respect and compassion for others as well as their writing skills by having them commit their fears, hopes and lives to paper is truly impressive, admirable and inspiring.

..but Freedom Writers is still not shy of a few flaws common to its type. Most of the stuff involving Patrick Dempsey as Swank's rather self-pitying husband provides a good excuse for a bathroom break; as most Gray's Anatomy fans already know, Dr.

McDreamy is at his least appealing when he morphs into Dr. McWhiny...and that's the only note that writer-director Richard LaGravenese allows him to play throughout. Speaking of wasted actors, the great Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake) deserves better than the one-dimensional faculty head whose sole function is to show how right Erin Grunell is by default simply by sneering bureaucratically at every suggestion Grunell makes.

And as moving, stirring anf genuinely affecting as much of Freedom Writers is, one still has to sadly and grudgingly admit that criticisms of it as being a partial paean to emotional codependency aren't completely off the mark.