THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER
US, 2018, 96 minutes, Colour.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gael Garcia Bernal, Michael Chernus, Parker Sevak.
Directed by Sarah Colangelo.
While The Kindergarten Teacher might be an ordinary enough title for a film, the story here is not what we might have been expecting. This is a remake of an Israeli film which made quite an impact, obviously tempting Hollywood to do an English-language version.
This is a significant role for a significant performance by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Usually is a very poised presence on screen, it is difficult to accept her as a teacher mixing with the littlies. But, credit to her, her performance becomes credible and creditable.
The teacher, Lisa, has been working for many years, her husband also working, teenage children at home with whom she does not always connect. She has probably always connected well with the kindergarten group, able to play with them, gently instruct them, nurture them, her home situation moving her more to her towards the classroom than life at home.
The other complication is that she is an aspiring poet. The difficulty is that she has been aspiring for many years, writing the poems, bringing them to an adult education course, led by Gael Garcia Bernal, who appreciates her presence, encouraging her, but not praising her finished work.
Then, a little boy, Jimmy (Parker Sevak) is heard speaking some verses. Lisa listens, is charmed and amazed by what she hears from a five-year-old. And this begins a serious turn of events, for Jimmy, for Lisa, for some moments of truth (which may be too late).
What is Lisa to do so charmed as she is by Jimmy’s poems? And he continues to create them, the bully innocent as to how fine they are as problems. Lisa takes them to her adult education class, obviously not revealing that they are not hers, the lecturer impressed, their both making a move, sexually.
Jimmy’s father, on the other hand, is one of those men’s men who doesn’t respond to poetry particularly well (or at all) and insists that Jimmy goes to sports practice. And, as a young boy, Jimmy seems oblivious to this tussle between the adults.
What is Lisa to do? She decides to enter Jimmy into a poetry competition, taking him there without the permission of his father, urging him to recite – and his receiving a claim. By this time, Lisa has bypassed support from her husband and children and becomes reckless.
In these years when child protection is so important, harm to children seems more significant. There are other ways of doing harm then sexual abuse and Lisa goes beyond bounds in trying to possess the boy – and it is interesting that Jimmy becomes more alert to this than we might have thought.
So the film is a strong drama about a competent woman who begins to fail, who puts herself into a more than compromising position, all in the name of benefiting the child, but will have to answer for her choices.
1. The human drama, the portrait of the teacher, school and education, portrait of families? And the picture of the gifted child?
2. The American city, the kindergarten and the classrooms, homes, the adult education classes, the recital? The countryside, the hotel, going for the swim? Authentic atmosphere? The musical score?
3. The portrait of Lisa, Lisa Gyllenhaal and her screen presence? A rage, relationship with her husband, the tensions, the sexual relationship and love? The relationship to the children, teenagers, going on their own way, their mother and her ambitions for them? The arguments, the apologies? The scenes at home, the meals, asking the children to come to meals? The portrait of family relationships?
4. Lisa at school, her relationship with the children, the work with her assistant, the various activities, the naps? The teachers at the school? School life?
5. Jimmy, in the class, his poem, Lisa’s response, he is reciting, her writing down the lines, the further poems, her encouragement and enthusiasm? Jimmy, his age, precocious? Small? His father not replying on the phone, Lisa going to see his uncle to make a plea, the father’s disdain for his brother, wanting his son to be ordinary, sports arrangements? His not permitting his son to go to the recital?
6. Lisa, the adult education class, the teacher and his enthusiasm, the presentation of poems, Lisa and her own poems and ambitions, her writing, conventional material, reading it out? The readings of Jimmy’s poems, as her own, the teacher’s response? The visit to him, his sexual approach, apology, the kiss, the sexual encounter and its effect?
7. The recital, Lisa taking Jimmy, making excuses? Dressing him up, the travel, the rehearsals for his poems, the recitations? Audience questions and applause? The teacher’s reaction, denunciation of Lisa, excluding her from the class?
8. Packing up, taking Jimmy on the trip, the drive, the hotel, on the beach, swimming, the shower – and Jimmy’s phone call, telling the police he had been kidnapped, the police’s arrival, Lisa’s explanations? His father’s response?
9. The consequences for Lisa, being banned, the future?
