Film Review: The Penguin Lessons

Picture: Lionsgate/Amy Young

By Kristina Cooper

Tom Michell’s endearing memoir about his experiences as a young student teaching English in a posh Argentinian boarding school  and the relationship he made with a rescued penguin has been turned into a new and entertaining film called “The Penguin Lessons” directed by Peter Cattaneo. This whimsical tale, however, has been beefed up and given a bit more heft by experienced award winning screen writer Jeff Pope. The Tom in the new film is now not a 22 year old bird lover, but a jaded, middle aged,  grumpy divorcee, played with relish by Steve Coogan.  He spends much of the film trying to dump the smelly bird, until he too, like his disruptive students, is eventually won over by its charms. And Juan Carlos as the bird is called is quite the scene stealer, upstaging even Steve Coogan and Jonathan Pryce, who plays the avuncular headmaster Bucky, in their scenes together.

Although the film is a comedy, there are also dark undertones.  Michell lived in Argentine in the 1970s during the military coup, a time of rampant inflation and “the  disappeared” whereby opponents of the regime simply vanished.  This aspect was only incidental in Michell’s book, but in the film it provides a fictionalised but significant sub plot. Through  Tom’s friendship with his cook Maria (Vivian El Jabor) and her granddaughter Sophia (Alfonsina Carrocio), he and the viewer get drawn into the lives of those living outside the school gates.  The politics may be glossed over, but the moral question  of how to react in the face of evil is not. Through Tom’s experiences, we are led to question what would we do  if we saw something wrong happening in front of us.  In this, I found  Tom’s fear and cowardice far more effective in portraying the power of evil than any graphic violence or heroics.

The very politically engaged might find the film a bit tepid  in this respect, as we don’t see any torture or people mowed down on the streets, but for me this made it all the more  realistic – and it is a comedy. It reminded me slightly of It’s a Beautiful Life with its juxtaposition  of comedy and tragedy. The evil of the regime  may only be hinted at, but it is nevertheless there. Nowhere is this made more clear than in the café scene towards the end of the film.  Here Tom tries akwardly to intercede with one of the military officers, a school parent, for the outspoken Sophia who has been abducted.  The smiling fond father patting the penguin,  suddenly, like the Queen in Snow White, metamorphoses before our eyes into a manifestation of reptilian evil.    

The message of the film stresses the importance of standing up to evil, however inadequately  and seemingly unsuccessfully.  When we all do our part, we can encourage each other.  Even Bucky, the headmaster,  comes good in the end,thanks to his therapy sessions with Juan Carlos and the film has a happy ending-for the humans at least.

Watch an interview with writer Tom Michell and director Peter Catteano

The Penguin Lessons is only in cinemas from 18th April