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Detachment More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 87 reviews in total |
147 out of 162 people found the following review useful:
Best Movie of 2011, 27 November 2011
Author:
Francisco Eguiza from Mexico
Saw this at a local film festival with little to no information about
the movie whatsoever; little did I know this was going to become my
favorite film of the year, and that's saying a lot given that 2011 has
been a blast for moviegoers with new products by Woody Allen, Terrence
Malick, Lars Von Trier and Clint Eastwood.
The movie revolves around an poignant substitute teacher (perfectly
played by Adrien Brody) who arrives at a vicious school, where students
go around bullying people (including the teachers) and basically
throwing their lives directly to the dumpster…you know, teenage angst
and such…I didn't grow up in the USA, so two important things I must
say, a) I don't know if this is an accurate depiction of any given
school in America and b) I can't relate with the overall chronicle,
which brings me to my next point.
The beauty of this movie comes within the subtext, whether you can
directly relate with the characters or not, the movie takes the message
and widens its range so everyone is able to understand the actual
meaning of the film. Let's clear things out, this film is not about a
school or the basis of education, this is about trying our best not to
give a damn about others as most of us just go around doing everything
in our power to be happy ourselves with a lousy job, a loveless
marriage, a constant sense of abandonment or basically a crappy life
(all of the above portrayed marvelously in the film).
Films by Tony Kaye tend to be really visceral with a thin slice of
optimism in the undertones, I think this time he just went mental about
everything, in the end you'll leave the theater with a slight sense of
hopelessness, almost as if you're destined to watch daily misery
without the power to control anything but your own life, as if the only
battle you must fight is the constant reminder that even when
everything falls apart and slowly turns into dust, you can't change the
world, you just have to avoid the world from changing you…This exposed
stunningly in the final sequence of the movie.
Do yourself a favor, watch this film!
83 out of 87 people found the following review useful:
You are in for a world of hurt, 26 February 2012
Author:
dschmeding from Germany
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Wow! I was not expecting this movie to be this engaging. Its one of
those films that leave you sitting in silence for a while when the
credits roll much like excellent Dramas like "Requiem for a dream" or
"Downloading Nancy".
This one spells it out pretty clear with the line "Henry Barthes is all
of us"... its hard to grasp how the realization that we are indeed all
the same can be so painful.
On the surface "Detachment" deals with the crumbling American education
system through the eyes of substitute teacher Henry Barthes (played by
Adrian Brody) who starts a new assignment in a new school with new
teachers, in a new class with new pupils like he is obviously used to.
The beginning shows him trying to get into this new class around the
bullies threatening him and other pupils, making it hard to teach
anything. At first it looks like all those "good teacher turns around a
bad class" movies but its not. You soon realize that the school is just
the backdrop for a larger story about a teacher who tries to do his job
by taking a role outside the play. Barthes makes clear that he is
hollow and words can't hurt him which is his way of coping with a
hopeless situation by neglecting his private life and detaching from
the world. Like him every teacher seems to have developed his
individual coping mechanism. For some its cynicism and dark humor,
"happy pills" are regularly mentioned too and for others its just
swallowing their emotions until they erupt. You see the teachers coping
with their daily routine while hearing an answering machine in the
background every now and then with other teachers resigning or parents
shouting for better grades for their kids.
Its pretty tough stuff seeing kids void of hope, interest or enthusiasm
and teachers trying to get to the few who are still to be reached in
the classroom. But its here where it all falls apart because of hollow
politics, parents that do not care or are just as dysfunctional as the
kids they raised and dropped into the public education system and
idiotic social rules and conventions we are all used to. When you see
the pattern in all the peoples private lives and their desperate tries
of holding on its obvious that "Detachment" is not just about the
public school system but about our whole society, about each and every
one of us.
When Barthes meets a young street hooker he decides to take her in with
him and do his job outside school. Its quite heartbreaking to see him
trying to make a change against all odds. At times Barthes comes across
like a modern day Jesus when he sleeps on the floor of his small
apartment and lets the girl sleep in bed. Some might say that
"Detachment" is too light on the teachers because most of the blame
falls onto parents and politicians. There is hardly an unsympathetic
teacher in this movie. Yet there are scenes that show Barthes is no
Jesus at all... like when he violently shouts at a nurse in a
retirement home after an incident with his dying grandfather. Barthes
is indeed like all of us, cracking when he struggles to cope and
lashing out to get out the pressure, just like the parents at school
push their pressure to the teachers.
And this is where the detachment cracks... amidst all the failures
Barthes manages to connect to the girl, as well as to an outcast girl
at school. And he connects through emotion and personal attachment but
soon has to realize that it does not work. The scenes of him sending
away the girl to a foster home when he tells her he cannot be her
family or when he has do send away the outcast girl when she tries to
share her sorrow with him are gut-wrenching. There are so many honest
and deeply emotional scenes in this movie its hard to keep track. His
grandfathers death with his total forgiving, Barthes monologues trying
to make the pupils understand why they need basic education for their
own sake are as brilliant as Lucy Lius Characters breakdown in which
she shouts out her desperation and sadness towards a seemingly not
caring girl.
The relationship between Barthes and the girl is stunning and
constantly rocked by misunderstandings... plain because you don't
expect it to be non-sexual with all the pedophile stories, sexual
harassment laws and stereotypes. But against all odds it is and you
realize that when there are no parents (like in the haunting "parents
night" scenes with teachers waiting and no one coming) someone else
must fill this void... how empty have we become that we cannot expect
someone to help out of honest interest for his fellow man... or rather
child?!
"Detachment" is a bleak and painful movie but it has some hope and even
some humor (the cynic teachers way of teaching a girl about the dangers
of STD with a picture of a rainbow and a picture of a disease ridden
vagina is one of those much needed lighter moments).
Its like when Barthes says in one of his many off commentaries... life
is an ocean of chaos and the realization that you are the one supposed
to throw the buoy while struggling to stay afloat is devastating. But
its the honesty about his own struggle that makes him connect with
others. Its when they realize we indeed are all the same, all
struggling and they are not alone in their strife that gives them their
humanity. But thats what life is... so what can you do but be honest
and hope for the best.... Its all going to be OK!
95 out of 114 people found the following review useful:
Wow wonderful film, 25 February 2012
Author:
bobmichigan1 from San Diego
Terrence Malick should take a look at this movie to understand how art
films are supposed to be made not just images reflecting on a screen
but real emotions included. This was an outstanding movie and in my
eyes should of got more recognition and probably the Best Picture of
2011. Adrian Brodys deserved a nomination for his performance as a
substitute teacher who does not want a full time gig because he does
not want to be emotionally attached to his students. He shows real raw
emotion in his position.
I just want to say props to the director who did an outstanding job not
trying to be too artsy and trying to make all viewers happy instead of
one group of viewers. By far the best movie I have seen from 2011.
61 out of 64 people found the following review useful:
Touching, an inspiration to change., 6 March 2012
Author:
Emmy Klein from Netherlands
A story about a teacher who wants to make a difference. Very touching
story with some twisted story lines about real life. It makes you see
how hard life can be for a lot of adolescents. Of course, the people in
this movie project some of the saddest life stories and not everybody
has it this hard, but I think a lot of people can recognize some of the
life problems of this movie.
Adrien Brody projects the right emotions at the right time in the
movie. Sadness, happiness, joy and trauma, every feeling has its place
in this movie. The use of real students and an existing school in
combination with great filming gives the viewer the feeling its all
real. A quality that makes a movie great.
The movie inspired me. I'm a elementary school teacher and I see a lot
of kids, sometimes heading in the wrong direction. It gave me a feeling
of hope and drive to help these children, even if it seems hopeless.
Please, go and see this wonderful movie!
53 out of 57 people found the following review useful:
A Glimpse into the Reality of Life, 6 March 2012
Author:
joshh83-283-171837 from United States
So many people are broken and hurt. Many fear of getting too close in
order to keep from getting hurt once more....
This movie is fantastic look into the brokenness of people in society,
along with our need as humans for affirmation and too belong. It not
only has an artistic side, but this movie is so real in many ways,
which everyone (or at least most) can relate too.
I highly enjoy this film and is yet another brilliant role played by
Adrian Brody, quite possibly his best role and story since "The
Pianist." The supporting cast was also great.
My opinion on this film may be biased, solely on the fact that I only
enjoy films that touch the heart and soul (or at least makes me
think/feel) and this is one film that made me want to go out and change
the world for the better.
This film is well worth while to watch from beginning to end. The
Academy needs to look into nominated Adrian Brody for an Oscar with
this performance. One of the few movies that I would watch over again
with a friend and well worth your while.
I can see why it won so many awards at Film Festivals.
43 out of 48 people found the following review useful:
Windswept and desolate school hallways, 26 April 2011
Author:
Michael Kleba (iblogamerica) from Brooklyn, NY
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
The truth about high school is that it's worse than you remember it.
Watching Tony Kaye's enthralling "Detachment," you can't help compare
your high school to the one on screen. You remember the terrible
teachers you had, the sterile hallways, the asinine classmates, and the
absurd assignments. You can remember the "weight that presses on
everyone" as Mr. Henry Barthes, played by Adrien Brody, tells his
class.
"If you can just hang on, everything will be alright." Mr. Barthes is
that hero teacher that we love tell stories about. He's the Christ, the
Buddha. He's meant to save us from ourselves.
The problem? Mr. Barthes is a great teacher because he has no life
outside of teaching. Like Socrates, Christ, Buddha, Gandhi, and
countless other mythologized teachers, Barthes is a detached island to
himself, without spouse, children, or personal life. He's a lonely
dude.
As a public school teacher sitting in the audience at the world
premiere last night in Tribeca, I have mixed feelings about telling you
that Tony Kaye has masterfully succeeded in capturing public school in
a macabre and beautiful chalkboard sketch. His lush, mannerist portrait
brings a gorgeous but searing light to the lonely reality of the
teaching profession. Mr. Kaye's "Detachment" presents school the way so
many of us on the inside see it: a windswept wasteland scourged of its
humanity by a culture that burdens its underfunded and unfairly
censured teachers with rearing, policing, and institutionalizing our
children.
I hate to say it: public school really is this bad. The few great
teachers that our system manages to attract are barely hanging on from
year to year, knocked senseless by a society that demands way too much
from them.
Adrien Brody is riveting as a seemingly serene but deeply damaged
substitute teacher. His sloping eyebrows, sometimes treacly or
overwrought in other performances, here convey an- inch-from-the-cliff
hopelessness without ever becoming a mask. Mr. Brody's Henry Barthes is
sweetly but searingly honest with his students even as sadly skulks
among the halls of his school. Barthes is also furious-- enough to
throw desks in his classroom and scream at a late night nurse at his
grandfather's assisted care facility. In close-up, documentary-style
interviews, Mr. Brody's eyes flash like lightning one moment and then
become as dull as concrete the next, daring us to try to understand how
one can care so much and so little. His Barthes has a teacher's
countenance in this film, acutely aware of how important yet futile his
work is. It's a career performance.
Barthes' determination to be disconnected keeps him the perennial
substitute-- in the classroom and in his personal life. Barthes tends
to his grandfather but has more than enough time to help out two young
girls, a young prostitute and an overweight loner. Despite his earnest
efforts, almost none of it works out well. The complicating plot lines,
all involving family surrogacy around Barthes, serve the notion that
teachers must be dispassionate and alone in order to perform their
jobs. The story survives its few yet regrettable school clichés by
sticking to this thesis.
Despite the fact that the number of big names threatens to make the
movie look like a cameo-fest (Lucy Liu? Christina Hendricks? Marcia Gay
Harden? Blythe Danner? James Caan? Really?), the ensemble gels together
surprisingly well. After all, weren't your teachers an impossible cast
of characters? Every character seems just barely above water as each
trudges to the blunt beat of the school bells ringing. The performances
are just fine, largely, but two are particularly successful. While Mr.
Caan's grinning jester provides a refreshingly necessary gallows' humor
in some of the film's darkest moments, it's Ms. Liu's imploding
truth-teller that lends undeniable heft to the story. As a guidance
counselor faced with yet another unreachable know-it-all teen, Ms.
Liu's character finally breaks down, berating the student with a bleak
prophecy of the child's future. "You will NOT be a model! You will
forever be on a carousel, competing with 80% of the country for a
minimum wage job for the rest of your life!" the guidance counselor
screams uselessly at the apathetic teen.
It's grim stuff, made more grave by the undeniable ring of truth.
The ancient Greeks tell us "we suffer our way to wisdom." By the end of
the film, you'll hope that is true for most of these characters.
Somewhere on screen, between a silent hug and the opening lines to
Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher," you will find a glimmer of hope.
But you have to work for it.
School, as the film has drawn it, is a Munch-esque desert of detachment
where the best anyone (teachers and students) can do is survive. But
the fact that Barthes, and teachers like him, won't give up-- and the
fact that Mr. Kaye made this movie-- tells us that hope is alive, if
not well.
The hope rests almost entirely in our lonely, detached teachers.
42 out of 47 people found the following review useful:
Disturbing and compelling; highly recommend, 25 February 2012
Author:
chicchien8-302-481207 from United States
I haven't seen a movie that drew me in to this extent in a long time. Extremely well written, directed, cast, acted ,edited etc. with all of the team talent that it takes to make a great film. Yes, there are a couple of "predictable" story lines. Ultimately, that doesn't matter at all . Watch it and get past them. It's not just a slam about the American school system. It's about how the flaws that all of us have affect us and others. Now I'm just annoyed by the fact that I have to write 10 lines in order to recommend this film . I guess that I can say that I was really surprised to see that American Express was one of the sponsors above the title. Now, just go see it !
44 out of 51 people found the following review useful:
Excellent Cinematic Experience!, 18 March 2012
Author:
ssamsonk from Bangalore, India
What an excellent cinematic experience! Tony Kaye has done an excellent job portraying the 'existential angst' that all of us feel at sometime or the other. If emotions were like colors on a palette, the movie is a painting masterpiece. The pain and suffering that each character goes through; the search of an identity, the burden of past mistakes, redemption and forgiveness, the heart-wrenching pain of separation and the exuberant joy of reunion and so much more...It really made me feel that through this project, the actors and everyone else associated with this movie would have actually experienced 'the weighing down' effect of living that we all feel one or the other time. It had a deep impact on me. After watching this movie, I felt that I have a responsibility to do something to reduce human suffering. If not anything else at least a prayer. Thank you Tony & Adrien for an emotionally charged, thought-provoking experience!
34 out of 36 people found the following review useful:
An Amazing Movie, 29 February 2012
Author:
jbw224 from United States
I was having a slow day at work and was able to download this film which i did mainly because I think Adrien Brody is a phenomenal actor. I sat and watched this movie and was amazed at how much I enjoyed it. The acting by the adult stars was so crisp that they each did their characters well, from Adrien Brody, Christina Hendricks, James Caan (who played the part to a tee of many teachers out there today...)and all the rest. The kids led by Sammi Gayle (who should get more story lines on Blue Bloods) and Betty Kaye with that very small but well written part for Rene Felice Smith brought this story to the top for me. The story was outstanding and really put things about our lives and even our education system in focus. This film deserves your attention and I think any awards it has received have been well deserved. I am adding this film to one of the top films I have seen in the last few years...Kudos to Mr. Brody......
42 out of 53 people found the following review useful:
A powerful and disturbing (but necessary) film, 3 October 2011
Author:
gregcarttar from United States
I saw this at Woodstock Film Festival, a few months after it premiered at Tribeca. I had the pleasure of driving Tony to the screening, and decided that I would stay for a few minutes to see the opening few minutes of the film, after seeing just a few seconds of it during the tech rehearsal earlier. After 30 seconds, I was hooked and could not get away. This film needs to be seen, people need to understand the conditions and circumstances presented in it of urban school environments; the trials that teachers and students face everyday, and the ravages wrought by "No Child Left Behind". The role played by Sami Gayle is astonishing, where she found that character is beyond me. I gave it a 9 our of 10 only because there were some scene-break graphics in the film that, while making sense, seemed to me to break the flow of the film. A must see. Tough to watch in places, but necessary.
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