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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Freedom Writers and The Pursuit of Happyness
Wednesday 17 January @ 14:06:50 |
  by LYDIA HOWELL
Movies aren't just an escape from real life, Hollywood also shapes how we see reality. Putting true stories on screen balances facts with inevitable fiction, with mixed results. "Freedom Writers" and "The Pursuit of Happyness" exemplify the strengths and weaknesses of such endeavors.
Both films aim to address serious social issues-- troubled inner city schools in "Writers" and homelessness in "Happyness"-- the former usually reduced to stock debates about tests and money, the latter largely ignored. Both films provide partial antidotes. Both films are anchored by appealing stars giving strong performances.
Hillary Swank perfectly embodies novice teacher Erin Gruwell, who comes into a post-Rodney King uprising, urban California classroom as an initially awkward, idealistic and stubborn novice teacher. The depiction of the culture shock she undergoes when she witnesses the violence that surrounds her students is absolutely credible, and the effect is only redoubled by her battles with bureaucracy and the other white teachers' insidious racism. Gruwell, increasingly absorbed by her vocation, takes part-time jobs to bring her students denied resources, alienating her pouty husband, Scott (Patrick Dempsey). Using Anne Frank's diary and the Holocaust, she connects with the students, re-directing the frustrations of racial strife in the process.
The story's primary lens is Gruwell, but even with Swank's radiance, one longs for far more of the students' perspective. Too much of what these students live with is implied and should have been shown. Rapper Mario has a wrenching moment with his drug-addicted mother. Jason Finn creates a strong presence as a homeless kid, whose story warranted more screen-time.
April Lee Hernandez' tough teen, Eva, is the exception. Her reactions to Frank's diary are delightful and she reveals real depth, struggle and change as she grapples with conscience versus racial group-loyalty. It's a great performance that should win Hernanedez future roles.
 As a volunteer in an afterschool program, I noticed one glaring omission: "Freedom Writers" doesn't even acknowledge the critical issue of functional illiteracy, with many youth of color reading seriously below grade-level and barely able to write. But the film does at least explore some of the institutional obstacles to truly equitable education. Given how much loot the entertainment industry makes from glamorizing gangs and reducing them to blood-as-sport "action films," the human consequences for these youth could have been better represented. These omissions make the academic "victories" a bit too easy.
Gruwell's father, a now-skeptical, former civil rights activist (Scott Glenn), represents the (too-often empty) pieties of liberals, one of the film's boldest aspects. Imelda Staunton's cold department head and John Benjamin Hickey's snobby honors teacher are the foils Gruwell must challenge to get her students the education they deserve. Some critics dismiss the two as "stock bad guys," but they're dead wrong. "Freedom Writers" holds up a disturbing mirror: the not-so-soft bigotry and educational neglect of students of color by white teachers in "failing schools." These are reasons enough, along with Swank and Hernandez, not to miss "Freedom Writers."
"Pursuit of Happyness" is powered by Will Smith's inspiring performance. As Chris Gardner, Smith's emotions range from tenacious optimism to tearful despair, drawing on just the right bit of his wonderful comic timing.
In the competitive and fast-paced early 1980s, Gardner and his wife, Linda (Thandie Newton), are behind on rent, as he tries to sell a bulky "bone-density machine" to doctors and she works two jobs. Like her character in "Crash," Newton has the thankless task of playing a one-note "cold, angry Black woman." We see how poverty grinds on marriage, something the Bush administration's "marriage promotion" as part of "welfare reform" denies.
The film is totally believable in its depiction of Gardner and his 5-year-old son's (played by Smith's son, Jaden) experience of homelessness: riding buses all night, sleeping in a public restroom and submitting themselves to the nightly shelter lottery. Add to this Gardner's attempt to seize the brass ring through an unpaid stockbroker internship, and what you have is a rare look at economic class in America.
 Again, some critics have dismissed the white male denizens of Dean Whittier and their wealthy clients as stock "bad guys." Again they're wrong. Money's all-pervasive power is palpably rendered. Racism is only alluded to by one of the firm's big-wigs singling out Gardner to act as errand boy. Although true, Gardner's ultimate rags-to-riches triumph (he recently sold his own multi-million-dollar financial firm) could be misconstrued as affirming free-market capitalism's "bootstrap" theory. Reality-check: since Gardner's successful breakthrough, America's wealth-gap is widening towards 1920s levels.
Playing Muhammad Ali proved Will Smith's acting chops, but playing an everyman like Gardner might mean even more. There are echoes of the "Kramer v. Kramer" syndrome: only when mothers disappear do fathers build the bond with their children. Even so, the real triumph in "Pursuit of Happyness" is the love between father and child. That love, along with a clear-eyed take on homelessness, make this a must-see movie. ||
Check local listings for theaters and times.
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