The Kindergarten Teacher

Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a stellar performance in The Kindergarten Teacher. This movie was a touch watch, but it was oh-so-worth it. It was very slow and methodical. I'm laughing at all the one-three star reviews because it's clearly people who were on their phone half the time or just haven't ever seen a movie which actually makes them feel something for a change. I don't normally post reviews because why should anyone care about my opinion, but I couldn't let this great movie get bogged down by fools who coooompletely missed the point the movie was trying to get across.

Due to the excellence of its acting, direction and screenplay, 'The Kindergarten Teacher' is frequently uncomfortable to watch. It tells the story of Lisa, who has become constrained by the routine of her job, frustrated with her grouchy teenage kids and bored by an overweight husband. In response, she has enrolled in an adult education poetry writing program to broaden her experience of life. Unfortunately Lisa has little talent herself - and when she overhears one of her young pupils Jimmy composing a short poem, she presents it to her class teacher as her own work. When he expresses admiration for its strong imagery, she decides it's her duty to foster Jimmy's gift, which leads her into dangerous territory after she runs into parental opposition.

It's easy to see the film as a metaphor how yearning for truth and beauty can turn an ordinary person into an outcast, as Lisa's encouragement of Jimmy swiftly bypasses appropriate behavior and becomes obsessive. When Lisa's poetry teacher reprimands her for being a dilettante, he fails to see how she's willing to sacrifice everything for the art she loves, while he uses poetry as a means to seduce his students. At its conclusion, poetry has certainly broadened Lisa's experience of life, but not in a way she might have wished or anticipated.

Gentle and subtle portrait of a kindergarten schoolteacher (Maggie Gylenhaal) who discovers a child prodigy with an extra ordinary poetry talent.

What makes this movie interesting is not the success story of this child's talent, but the many failures the kindergarten teacher herself has suffered in her life, in trying to become a good writer. Now she wants to own this kid's talent, compensating for her own shortcomings in writing.

It is an intriguing, subtle picture, worthwhile watching, yet missing in excellence, because of a lack of credibility of the story at certain crucial plot turns. This story is not very believable near the end, and as a result, the drama starts lacking as well.

For example: I simply can not believe any schoolteacher would go as far as taking one of her schoolkids to her own house and letting him stay overnight, without alerting the parents first.

Therefore the biggest downfall of this story is that it lacks in a believable plot turn at a crucial dramatic moment near the end.

Dont get me wrong, the end is beautiful allright, but it fizzles out a bit as well. Such a shame, because this story had all the ingredients in becoming a gem.

It is still a very interesting, touching picture, definitely worthwhile watching, but it unfortunately is missing in excellence...

Great respect to Maggie Gyllenhaal for taking on this role, it may be the most unique and complex one I've seen this year, and she does it justice and then some. It's an incredibly complicated role, one that could have been played in so many ways, and she delivers a tour de force.

One of the holy grails of film is openness to varied interpretation. Despite its implied narrative unity, The Kindergarten Teacher (2017)is as open-ended as they come. What appears to be a predictable story of a bored 40-something teacher looking for self-actualisation slowly takes on dark themes of psycho-sexual obsession and acts of criminality.

Deep in a marital and career rut, kindergarten teacher Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal) craves more than life has offered. Her teenage kids prefer social media than listening to her admonishments and her tolerant husband Grant (Michael Chernus) cannot understand why she is so restless. To ease her sexual and career frustration, Lisa attends an evening poetry class to immerse herself in literary beauty, hoping to become a writer despite a paucity of talent.

Her dreams are answered in the strangest of ways. One day in kindergarten, she overhears five-year old Jimmy (Parker Sevak) spontaneously create a short poem. To Lisa, this is an epiphany: if she cannot find great writing within, then her gift is to recognise sycg prodigious talent. She plagiarises Jimmy's poem and her evening class and teacher are impressed. Believing that only she can save Jimmy's talent from obscurity, she becomes obsessed with the boy and ingratiates herself into his broken family life.

This storyline description does not come close to capturing how disturbing Lisa's behaviour becomes. Today's global awareness of child abuse has rewritten the rules of how an adult can relate to a child. At first imperceptibly then manifestly obvious, Lisa bends then breaks all the rules for child contact. Her physical touch, excessive attention, and taking him where others cannot see, gradually dial-ups audience levels of discomfort. When Jimmy's father withdraws him from the kindergarten because of Lisa's behaviour, her complete breakdown and subsequent responses make it impossible to predict where her obsession might lead.

There are many horror and thriller films that pale alongside The Kindergarten Teacher: it is a superb example of how less can be more in filmmaking. Reliance on ambiguity and audience imagination creates a tense psycho-drama on the nature of psychotic obsession. Maggie Gyllenhaal gives an extraordinary yet understated performance; she dominates every scene and exudes normality with just a hint of madness. Young Parker Sevak is amazing in his innocence and bewilderment over the fuss he seems to cause. Tight direction keeps the narrative moving forward with well-measured escalating tension until it is impossible to guess what will happen next in this low-key but highly disturbing film.