Adrian Brody plays a mostly broken, somewhat depressed man who is a career substitute teacher in New York. He has embraced this career as a valuable and necessary part of the educational system and also as a way to remain isolated from any community. He can help, without becoming close enough to anyone for them to be able to help him. The scenario for his current assignment is the worst school, with the worst faculty morale. And he does what he can. What I love about this film is that it is mostly about Brody. We get interview snippets (but don't ever really know why an interview is taking place) along with old home movie snippets of his life. These give us insight to his life philosophy, his educational philosophy and history that has shaped his personality. All total, these snippets probably add up to 5 minutes of film time, but give real depth to the character. This is not a happy film, but it is real. Brody struggles with education, generational attitudes and his own failures in life. He is remarkably functional for a pessimist. He is working hard to be an existentialist, but finds that he cares too much to have any real success with it. This internal battle is not explicit, but is the strength of this film and Brody carries it with integrity.
5 stars (out of 5)
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