The Penguin Lessons

8/10 STARS - The Penguin Lessons was AMC's Screen Unseen movie for March 18 and is based on a book of the same name by Tom Michell. Tom is an English teacher who takes a job at an all-boys boarding school in Argentina just as a military coup is beginning. At the start of the coup, he travels to Uruguay and comes upon a penguin that had been caught in a oil slick and washed ashore. He cleans up the penguin and then tries his hardest to get rid of it, even going so far as to throw it back in the ocean. But all to no avail. The penguin has decided that this human is its family and thus begins the sweet friendship between penguin and man. The backdrop of the story - the coup and resulting dictatorship in Argentina - adds a level of tension, but the heart of this film is about what the main character comes to understand about himself during his time with the penguin and how that journey of self-reflection helps him deal with his pain of past loss and his fear of speaking out on behalf of those in trouble. At the end of the movie, we see a short home video clip of the real penguin during its time there at the boarding school where Tom Michell taught. This is a sweet film with some underpinnings of darker themes, but nothing explicitly violent or sexual is shown. As a comedy drama, there isn't really any "action" to speak of, but that was okay because the story moved along well, the characters were interesting, and that darn penguin deserves an acting award for making me cry! It's a movie I wouldn't have gone to see on my own but I'm glad to have been able to watch it. Recommended. Short video review to come soon.

Not a bad movie. It actually had a plot which you can't say about a lot of movies anymore. Thankfully subtitles did not dominate. The penguin was cute. It dragged a little bit by the end. It would have been nice if they'd done some flash backs or something to give more context why the main character was the way he was for 2/3s of the film. Also I would have liked more time showing how the classmates bonded in the end. It was heartfelt and you could really see how the characters came out of their shells in different ways because of the penguin. I recommend this movie. It has a positive and hopeful message.

Steve Coogan plays a comically reprehensible and emotionally vacant man drifting through life. He lands in Argentina in 1976-just as the country edges into a military coup-and finds himself teaching English at a boys' school. Circumstances, both absurd and touching, lead him to reluctantly befriend a penguin.

This unlikely relationship sparks a journey of personal growth and rediscovery. Or at least, that's the idea.

Coogan's performance is both heartwarming and jarring, and I'm not sure if that tonal contradiction was intentional on director Peter Cattaneo's part or just the result of tonal whiplash. I wanted to like his character. I tried to root for him. But for some reason, I couldn't quite follow the arc of his redemption. While others in the film gradually warm to him, I remained stuck-still staring into the void of his character's emptiness.

Then there's the setting. Placing a penguin-centric personal redemption story in the middle of Argentina's 1976 coup feels... off. Historically accurate, yes. But I couldn't shake the sense that the filmmakers were using the backdrop of real political trauma as a kind of moral seasoning-maybe even a veiled commentary on today's geopolitical climate. Not inherently wrong, but the juxtaposition of soft-and-fuzzy personal growth with state-sponsored terror left me disoriented. In the end, I think the film's warm intentions got diluted by its ambitions.

A distraught and antisocial teacher works his way down South America to Argentina. While the country is experiencing civil unrest, he takes an opportunity to go out and have fun. What was supposed to be a getaway ends up with him forced to keep a penguin. Little did he know that this penguin would change not only his life but the lives of everyone around him.

This movie adaptation of a memoir is inspired by actual events. The story is simple: Some friends come into our lives for just a season but leave a lasting impact. The movie has emotion, drama, comedy, and a penguin. Despite having a penguin, there is language and topics unsuitable for children. The one-hour and fifty-minute run time waddles by quickly. It is an entertaining watch for families with older children.

The film told a very interesting story of life in Argentina after the coup in 1976. Many issues were covered in the film and we thought the film was fantastic. The whole cast was wonderful and we thought many of the supporting actors had especially strong roles - brilliantly peformed. As the main character, Steve Coogan was extremely funny, and sensitively played a cynical and jaded teacher. Coogan thoroughly deserved his Oscar nomination. Also, if there were Oscars for animals in films the penguin should won one. The film itself felt quite light-hearted and playful in overall tone but did a really good job portraying a very powerful story, worthy of Oscar nominations itself.