Freedom Writers is a movie I had wanted to see. It just didn’t seem like a movie I needed to move to the top of my Netflix queue. I decided I would wait until it made its slow ascent to the top of my list of 500 movies. Matt encouraged me to move it up and I’m glad the opportunity came along.
Swank stars are Erin Gruwell who takes a teaching job in a rough school straight out of college. She sees so much potential in her students, but can’t seem to reach them through the fog of gang violence, poor parenting and race relations. All her attempts to reach the students seem further thwarted by a department chair who refuses to take a chance on these throw-away kids.
Swank begins to reach her students by opening their eyes to history, particularly, the Holocaust. She instructs her students to begin writing daily in diaries (ala Anne Frank) to express their feelings. Through the love and attention these student get at school, the students begin to see a life for themselves outside of the gangs.
I was a little wary of watching this movie because all inner city school movies (Stand and Delivery, Dangerous Minds, etc.) seem to be the same. The teacher starts off very naïve and idealistic. The kids are brimming with potential, but are locked into bad situations based on their upbringing. And the administration doesn’t seem to care about helping the students. These movies seem to be a bit interchangeable. I’m sorry to say Freedom Writers falls into the same trap.
Freedom Writers gets three stars. The script is very formulaic and the pacing slow. There was never a second of this movie when you didn’t know what was coming next. However, the acting of Hillary Swank made the movie enjoyable to watch. Swank saves this movie from disaster because she makes it virtually impossible to dislike like her character.
Michelle D. Kieffaber
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