Break Free

Young idealistic teacher arrives in inner city school. Young idealistic teacher meets resistance. Young idealistic teacher gradually brings her pupils around. Sniff, cry, roll end credits.

Welcome to the latest entry in one of Hollywood’s more overlooked sub-genres: the inspirational teacher tale. There have been variations on the plot – Dead Poet’s Society changed things with its period setting and posh academy, for example – but the heart of the story is the same.

Freedom Writers slots neatly into the genre, hits all the obvious buttons and – dammit! – really gets the tear ducts active. Whether this is the quality of the performances, the nature of the beast or just the fact that it’s a true story is debatable. But while it looks like Dangerous Minds on the surface, this is a much, much stronger film.

Hilary Swank plays Erin Gruwell, the aforementioned idealistic young teacher. She arrives in room 203 of the Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California ready to inspire and mould young people’s minds.

The class though is made up of the students other teachers have deemed ‘unteachable’: a diverse mix of races, religions, cultures and colours. Within days, Erin’s dedication to the task is crumbling. She’s not reaching the kids, her father (Scott Glenn), other half (Patrick Dempsey) and her fellow teachers – including Imelda Staunton as her department head – are this close to saying ‘we told you so’.

But then a single in-class incident provides a devastating catalyst, and Erin starts making progress. This leads to a diary project that becomes less about homework and more about living. That in turn, leads to the book on which this film is based…

Freedom Writers could have been a load of hoary old clichés, from situation to characters out of race casting central. That’s possibly still the case but for every bit of emotional shorthand employed to make a point, there’s a surprising amount of character development and background.