Review of Monsieur Lazhar (2011) by Justin Z — 28 May 2012

I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. While it starts off kind of slow and takes a little while to find its bearings, when the film hits its stride it is quite the story. The acting across the board is fantastic, particularly from Mohamed Fellag, Sophie Nelisse and Emilien Neron.

The story manages to take a lot of plots and subplots and mold them into a coherent whole centering on the roles played by students and teachers along with the concept of what connects people during times of grief. I personally just loved how much it was not afraid to call out the modern school systems for removing the human element from teaching. While it is true some people can take advantage of that, there are many people who are actually good people like Monsieur Lazhar and just want to help students overcome serious problems.

It is competent filmmaking on a whole, with good not great camerawork, editing and other technical aspects. That is pretty much all I can say.

That said, so much of this film's writing, directing and acting hit just the right notes. What could have been a very cynical and pretentious movie plays out in a very genuine and touching way. The characters are all given dimension, the arguments on both sides are understandable and while the ending is bittersweet on the surface, you feel like something has been won at the end.