Movie Review: Freedom Writers

By Dan MacIntosh Jan 3, 2007, 7:50 GMT

Fresh–faced, idealistic twenty–three–year–old Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) is ready to take on the world as she steps inside Wilson High School for her first day of teaching. Her class, a diverse group of racially charged teenagers from different walks of life – African Americans, Latinos, Asians, juvenile delinquents, gang members, and underprivileged students from poor neighborhoods – hope for nothing more than to make it through the day. On the ...more

‘Freedom Writers’ elicits feelings of déjà vu because its plot mirrors stereotypical sports movies.

You know the films I’m talking about: Invariably, whenever Hollywood introduces a high school basketball team that cannot shoot straight, these overachievers end up city champions in the end. A joyous finale is practically guaranteed, capped off by a game-winning buzzer beater. Although ‘Freedom Writers’ replaces basketballs with books, its outcome is nearly identical to ‘Hoosiers’ and the like. In this case, however, educational hoop dreams come true.

Even though you know the exact destination before starting the car, you are nevertheless excited when you get there, which makes ‘Freedom Writers’ familiar path feel like unexplored territory. There is no mystery in ‘Freedom Writers,’ yet it provides a decidedly bountiful emotional payoff. And although not an innovative film, it takes a tried-and-true cinematic formula and scores big time with it.

Based upon a true story, ‘Freedom Writers’ is about a privileged rookie English teacher from Newport Beach, CA on her first assignment at an integrated high school in Long Beach, CA. But instead of downtrodden dribblers, she is handed a student squad that cannot think straight -- yet.

Hilary Swank stars as Erin Gruwell, the against-the-odds teacher. When introduced to her freshman class, she appears like an innocent lamb before the slaughter. Unwisely decked out in a garish pearl necklace on day one, these bright white beads compliment her perfectly straight, shiny teeth. Undeterred by the task at hand, she is fearless and hopeful, a trait inherited from her civil rights veteran father. And rather than a room packed with gang banging losers, she sees only beautiful, raw potential in her new students.

Before long, fights break out along racial lines in her classroom and later a larger school riot ensues. This story takes place shortly after the L.A. riots, after all, and racial violence is the hot topic of the day.

Under these trying circumstances, nobody in Gruwell’s immediate work circle expects her students to remain in school past their freshman year, let alone graduate. Whether she admits this to herself or not, Gruwell was hired on to be a glorified, well-educated babysitter.

Unfortunately, troubled students are not her only obstacle. Her supervisor, Margaret Campbell (played by Imelda Staunton) tells Gruwell in so many words that it is hopeless to expect success in her new position. Campbell butts heads with Gruwell at almost every turn. Mostly, this is friction born out of jealousy over Gruwell’s surprising, and nearly immediate, effectiveness.

Gruwell’s father, played by Scott Glenn, is also initially disappointed by his daughter’s job choice, mainly fearing for her safety.

Husband Scott (Patrick Dempsey), however, takes Gruwell’s borderline messianic calling hardest of all. A failed architect who settled for a job beneath his skills, Scott sadly flounders while watching his teacher-wife flourish. Eventually he can no longer be Gruwell’s wife, so to speak, and divorces her.

In room 203, Gruwell does not know the word surrender. At first, she attempts to teach Tupac Shakur rap lyrics as poetry, only to be mercilessly mocked for misunderstanding ghetto culture. But after witnessing a blatant act of classroom racism, where one Hispanic student draws a fellow Black class mate with exaggeratedly large lips and passes this picture around the room, Gruwell happens upon a unique expressway into her students’ hearts.

She tells these tough girls and guys that their territorial gang activity is small potatoes compared to how the Nazis took over whole countries, not just mere neighborhoods, decades ago. She asks her students to raise their hands if they have ever heard of the Holocaust.

Only one lone white boy lifts his hand. At this pivotal moment she recognizes the depressing parallel between past Nazi offences, and mindless racism of present day youth. If she does not heal their ignorance now, perhaps no one will.

Gruwell quickly begins buying relevant books for her students, which include “The Diary of Ann Frank,” and also takes them to the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance. These eye-opening experiences so impress her class, they decide on their own to raise enough money to bring Miep Gies, the real life hero that saved Frank’s life, to speak to them. We watch as these hard-before-their-time kids soften at the horrors of yesteryear, and this emotional transformation is the crux of the film.

A story as basic and straight forward as this one rises and falls with the believability of its cast. And these actors steal your heart.

A student named Eva, played by April Lee Hernandez, stands out above the pack. Raised in the gang life, with a dad already doing time for crime, she is taught to esteem loyalty to family and tribe above all other social values. She is well on the way to following in her father’s tragic footsteps when Gruwell enters her life. Hers is the most compelling individual tale, but every student portrayed has a unique story. This is why Gruwell assigns each student a personal journal, and where we get the movie’s title.

In contrast, Staunton’s portrayal as Margaret is this film’s most disappointing one. She’s too one-dimensional, like so many – too many -- other rigid school officials we have watched on film and television over the years. This role asks her to play a killjoy without redeeming qualities. It is a shame and a waste of talent, especially if you are familiar with her complicated title role in Mike Leigh’s exemplary Vera Drake.

Dempsey’s Scott is this film’s least fully utilized character, also a disappointment. He consistently expresses his resentment toward wife’s success, but the camera only spies him loafing around, watching television and looking miserable. Their relationship begs the question: Why did they marry in the first place? Didn’t he have a clue about her ambitious social agenda from the get-go? He obviously didn’t take stock of what he was getting into.

But in his defense, isn’t such willful ignorance true of so many failed marriages? Hope – even blind hope – is a key component in every coupling.

Although writer-director Richard LaGravenese incorporates gripping L.A. Riot footage – complete with gunplay, looting and fires – there isn’t a whole lot of on-screen action. Instead, this is a character-driven drama where human lives gradually blossom before our eyes. And in a way, it is a little reminiscent of a Mike Leigh film; emotions are constantly bubbling under the surface, just waiting to explode.

This film’s best bit of dialogue arrives when Gruwell’s father describes her as being “blessed with a burden.” It is a paradox, for how can a burden also be a blessing? But for these diamonds-in-the-rough students, Gruwell’s special burden turns out to be their unlikely blessing. She embodies their ticket to freedom.

Freedom Writers
Directed by Richard LaGravenese
Starring: Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton, April L. Hernandez
Runtime: 123 minutes

Opens USA January 5. MPAA: Rated R