Penguins are some of the sweetest animals in the world, next to – and I admit that I can be a little biased – my two cats. Yes, if penguins march, surf, dance or try to blast Gotham City With rockets stuck in the back, each movie is better with at least one sweet little water birds in it. Even a drama about an English teacher fighting against fascism in Argentina in the 1970s while he learned to love again.
“The Penguin lessons” (or as I like to call it, “Goodbye fish ‘n’ chips”) stars Steve Coogan as Thomas Michell. He is a grumpy gus who has given up life. He moves into St. George’s, a boarding school for rich children in Argentina in 1976 and expects to coast with zero effort. He doesn’t even care about the country’s violent political upheaval. When a coup d’état is explained, he is only happy to have a week free.
Thomas tries to impress a woman by saving a penguin on the beach, but when it still doesn’t get him, he decides to return the freshly cut penguin to the sea. The cute little whippers button refuses to leave his side, and before long he is stuck with the darned thing, hides it from the Snooty principal (Jonathan Pryce) while using his new pet, Juan Salvador, to trick his students into paying attention in the class.
Oh yes, and while all this adorable Falkeral is Follorall, the new Argentine government abstains political dissidents of thousands. This includes a lively St. George -Employee (Alfonsina Carrocio, “Society of the Snow”), which is kidnapped right in front of Thomas’s eyes. The debt he feels like doing nothing drives him to do something, because now that fascism has hurt someone he cares about, it suddenly plays.
“Penguin Lessons” comes from director Peter Cattaneo, best known for his Oscar-nominated drama “The Full Monty”, a movie that skilfully balanced sensitive working-class comments with a two narrative hook on average Joes that caters to sex work in hard times. His latest has a similar prerequisite, a sweet story about a curm budge and a heartwarming new pet, in the light of a disturbing chapter in world history. It’s a bit like looking at a new recording of “Air Bud” that takes place under “The Battle of Algiers.”
The events in “The Penguins Lessons” really happened, more or less, giving Cattaneo’s film one out in the premise department. But it is bizarre to watch a movie about political anxiety and human suffering from the perspective of an outsider whose problems are so small to assume a penguin can fix them. Again, if the audience who expects a sweet penguin film is forced to get involved in the fact that all governments that abstain from people to have different political opinions are evil, and that everyone must do everything in their power to stop the miscarriage of justice, no one can say “money lesson” is not at least well.
There is not a lot more to say about it, frankly. Steve Coogan is Steve Coogan-Y as usual and gives a nice comical delivery to its most stupid dialogue. The supporting role is uniformly strong, especially Vivian El Jaber as the heartbroken mother to a kidnapping victim. The stroke meets everyone and hits hard enough to reason. If you don’t cry at the end, when “Penguin Lessons” wants you to cry, then you are obviously the one who really needs a penguin now. It should be warm the icy heart of you.
