Freedom Writers

Freedom Writers is more or less exactly what you expect it to be: an inspirational overcome the obstacles drama about reconciling differences and striving together against…blah, blah, blah. It’s a hard sell to anyone not wanting to be forcibly inspired. More importantly, it probably won’t win over a cynical viewer since it is as cliché and redundant as its detractors might hope. I can’t in my right mind give it a strong recommendation, but I can confess that anyone desiring a film of this nature will probably be more than satisfied.

Carved warmly out of true tales of struggling students wrangled in by their wide eyed freshman English teacher, Erin Gruwell, (Hilary Swank) Freedom Writers provides a substantial amount of weight and truth to its otherwise unimpressive narrative. Swank gives a performance with just enough spirit to sell her optimism but also enough cynicism to keep us from tuning out of her cartoonish chirpiness. She’s sympathetically imperfect and often awkward in her early attempts to earn the respect of her caustic teenage students. While their inevitable bond works well enough inside the bubble of the classroom, it leaves you feeling as though the movie has just skipped over the difficulties in other spots. So much of what Gruwell gets done clearly would have taken plenty more effort and aggravation than is depicted on screen. We’re also given limited information on how her students really go about changing their lives. Momentary mentions of their familial and personal issues as well as those of Gruwell (e.g. Patrick Dempsey as an almost nonexistent husband) do not truly encapsulate the full story of these people’s lives. It’s the shorthand of all that’s going on in the world around the school that leaves this feeling slightly vacant.

Unlike Half Nelson which focused on the complete story of one troubled student and shaped a story truthful in its extreme detail and complexity, Freedom Writers gives us a few snippets here and there of the tragic stories of these kids without fully realizing how they play out and get resolved. So much gets glossed over that the movie loses some of its honesty and becomes something of an overly sweet melodrama averting its eyes from the true conflicts at hand. It’s as if we’re given only the smiling happy picture at the end of the battle and never really shown the grueling amount of labor that lead to that moment. Achieving victory is the goal here and while the film suggests that Erin and her kids are working against difficulties none of these gets displayed with the weightiness it deserves. The intention is clearly just to deliver the happy moment at the end and not necessarily to burden the audience with something painfully complex. It works well enough as is, but anyone desiring deeper, more wholly authentic stories should go elsewhere.

Grade: B-