Movie Review: Detachment

Hi everyone!

"Detachment" is an intense but flawed new film playing in selected theaters and On Demand. I was particularly drawn to it because it tells the story of a substitute teacher and his colleagues at a troubled urban high school, an experience that rings close to home as I continue to work with students in an inner city Chicago public high school.

Henry, played by Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody, is the substitute teacher in question. He is what is called a permanent substitute, meaning he works long-term substitute teaching assignments as needed, oftentimes up to a month or longer. Immediately we realize that Henry is no ordinary substitute. He is haunted by memories of growing up with his mother in his grandfather's house. Disjointed flashbacks allude to sexual abuse at the hands of his grandfather who, as the film begins, is at death's door in a care facility with a somewhat negligent staff. Henry is an interesting character who seems permanently on the verge of erupting into violent rage. As played by Mr. Brody, you get a sense that he is indeed striving to be a good person but life and experience render him an emotional void--hence the 'detachment' of the title.  He alternates between subbing as an English teacher for a particularly volatile class of high school students and visiting his grandfather in the nursing home. One evening, he witnesses a teenage prostitute Erica (appealingly played by newcomer Sami Gayle) being assaulted on a city bus. Henry doesn't try to intervene. He watches the event rather dispassionately, much to the chagrin of Erica who follows him home and ends up living with Henry in his apartment. Henry comes to serve as a non-sexual father figure to Erica and the evolution of their relationship serves as the backbone for the film.

The high school is plagued by all sorts of problems that any teacher--inner city or otherwise--will undoubtedly relate to. The principal (Marcia Gay Harden) is under pressure by city officials to turn the underperforming school around; a guidance counselor (Lucy Liu) struggles with her own rage and disillusionment at the defiance and overall lack of decency she sees in her students; a young teacher (Mad Men's Christina Hendricks) tries to maintain optimism despite all the chaos, while another (James Caan) gets through the day popping pills and throwing back at his students the abuse they give him. All of this eventually comes together in the suicide of a troubled student.

"Detachment" possesses a visceral immediacy that is hard to look away from. The performances of the entire cast are riveting (Lucy Liu's meltdown gives voice and action to frustrations common to all teachers) and true-to-life although none are particularly well-developed. The film itself feels undeveloped, a loosely-connected mishmash of social issues and a diatribe against contemporary public school education. Henry in particular remains a cipher at film's end. Because he is so emotionally detached--for reasons that never really come into focus--it's hard to know whether we are supposed to sympathize with him or his actions. Scenes that should affect us oftentimes leave us rather cold. The only character and performance in the film that really resonates is that of Ms. Gayle's Erica. She blossoms from hardened old-beyond-her-years girl of the streets to something almost innocent in her affection for Henry and her desire for his approval.

Nonetheless, the film raises some timely and provocative issues that anyone who works within the public education system will undeniably relate to. I recommend it for this reason. This is also somewhat of a worthy renaissance for Mr. Brody who has more-or-less disappeared from the radar after his Oscar triumph ten years ago in "The Piano." He is indeed a real talent and, in "Detachment," he manages to find depth in a character that never really comes to life.

Ciao.