Freedom Writers (2007) - Movie Review
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Freedom Writers is like countless movies before it: an innocent white teacher naively takes a job at an inner city school, starts off on shaky ground with her hopeless, gang-affiliated students and eventually wins them over. Based on a true story, the movie is feel-good emotion through and through, but, I'll hand it to director Richard LaGravenese - Freedom Writers is a well done and entertaining inner city school movie. It may not be original, but it is uplifting and a joy to watch.
Hilary Swank stars as Michelle Pfeiffer (oops, I meant to say Erin Gruwell but got this movie confused with a version of Dangerous Minds without "Gangsta's Paradise"), a brand new teacher who finds herself in the high school from Hell. Not only are her students gang members, disorderly and at times downright disrespectful, the staff, namely her supervisor and a senior teacher in her department, have completely given up on the students and thus restrict her from doing anything sensational to capture the kids' attention. Erin decides to change course anyway and convinces her students to start writing in journals, which she discovers is an effective way to get them to remain interested. As they continue to develop as students, Erin watches as her group sheds their gang boundaries and start showing an interest in the outside world, including "The Diary of Anne Frank."
There's nothing much I can say about Freedom Writers. You know exactly how it's going to turn out and there are really no surprises in the whole movie. Aside from Erin, the movie focuses on a couple key students and also the struggling relationship between Erin and her husband, played by Patrick Dempsey. The movie doesn't have "Gangsta's Paradise", which means it is already a step down from Dangerous Minds, but it works in its own way. The movie is enjoyable, relatively captivating and well acted. Of course, Swank has been in better and more difficult roles, but she elevates the material.
Freedom Writers is a surprisingly quality film that should be watched by everyone who likes this kind of drama.
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Anonymous says:
July 2, 2007I throughly enjoyed this movie, I cried, I laughed. It did show society the way it is , now what is too be done about it? Her husband leaves her for doing something she believes in , this is so typical. I have no faith in the public administration system either just push them through. No one wants to take the time to care anymore, teaching in many public schools has become just a job.
Anonymous says:
January 7, 2007I went into this movie thinking that the only thing i was going to get out of this was alot of racial power saying that white had alot or black or latino. I watched this movie and it amazed me when I heard that so many kids didnt even know what the holocaust was. This movie was so well acted and could make the tears come down in a heartbeat. Hilary swank had one of the best acting moments in her career. She made the character seem real. I cried and felt the heartbreak of how children in america are getting left behind because of race, home problems, and most of all the wrong groups that they hang with. I had never known for that many problems to accur in our country. There was a scene where they brought the real Miep Gies that hid the Anne Frank family, and the kids in the class listened to her story and relized they didnt have it as rough as they did. This movie was not only moving, but it allowed the knowledge of making sure that you know what hard is in life and that when times get rough fight it in the right way.