Alone And Adrift

Detachment (2011)   —   movie review
Today’s movie review is for “Detachment“, a drama about a substitute teacher at a failing high school which is doing so poorly it is facing closure.  The movie is about events in the final couple of months before the closing and the subs attempt to teach English in this environment.  There are a LOT of threads in this mentally complex film, including:  the school / principal, other teachers, the class / students, a young prostitute, a dying grandfather, and, last but not least, teenage suicide.
The film stars Adrien Brody as Henry Barthes (the substitute teacher), Marcia Gay Harden as Principal Carol Dearden (high school Principal), Sami Gayle as Erica (a minor-age prostitute), Christina Hendricks as Ms. Sarah Madison (a borderline love-interest for Barthes), Lucy Liu as Dr. Doris Parker (the school counselor), and Betty Kaye as Meredith (one of Barthes’ students).
The title refers to the main character’s emotional state as a reaction to his upbringing and situation in life.  His mother was an alcoholic and overdosed on pills when young Henry was seven years old (shown via flashbacks).  It is implied she was molested by her father.  The father is now (dying) in an assisted-care facility and Henry visits his grandfather throughout the movie.
So, is this movie any good?  Acting, drama, societal critique?  And, do I recommend it?  Yes;  good to very good;  kind of slow – but it gets to the climax at the end;  I don’t think so – but it makes some good points;  and, yes, I recommend it, but with qualifications.
Any good:  Let’s start with false expectations.  I’m not very familiar with Brody’s body of work, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the lead.  I saw a small clip from this movie on YouTube, so I knew the movie had something to do with a problem high school and / or troubled teacher.  Other than that, I was entering the story with the expectation of lead / hero enters school and then magically turns it around (a la “Stand and Deliver” and a hundred other inspirational movies).  Well, this ain’t one of those…  But it strikes this non-teacher (me) as a realistic snapshot of one type of school (heavily stereotyped).
Acting:  I really liked the actors in this movie.  I felt they were all well cast and played their roles well to very good.  I’m not saying the overall story was realistic, only that given the initial conditions, the portrayals of the students AND teachers reactions were mostly believable or relatable.  I wouldn’t react that way, but I could see how someone else might.  And, I think that is about all you can expect from most drama movies.
Drama:  This is an intense movie about personal feelings and interpersonal relationships.  It touches on several broad and specific societal issues:  dealing / coping with the aged / dying relatives;  the purpose of education;  job fatigue / burnout;  guiding youth through adolescence;  processing childhood memories;  suicide;  and, ultimately opening up to others.
Societal critique:  The world we live in has lots of problems.  I get it.  I don’t think any individual thing (issue) in the movie is unique to this film.  I found the layering of the various issues as overlapping problems to be interesting.  If I had a criticism of the movie on this it would be that the film offers no solutions to almost any / every problem – save one:  the difficulty of being an adolescent in today’s society.  The “solution”:  hang on and things will probably get better.  I consider this more of an attitude adjustment than a solution.  Which isn’t to say it’s wrong;  only not particularly useful to anyone currently in adolescence.
Final recommendation:  moderate.  I was “troubled” by the movie – in a thoughtful way.  It made me think during and after.  To me that makes it a “good” movie.  However, I had issues with the movie’s plot inconsistencies and production.  On production, I wasn’t a big fan of grainy footage.  There are very few films where this works – mostly teen horror films where the soon-to-be victim is running from the villain / monster and is carrying a hand-held camera.  I’m just not a fan, otherwise.  My main problem(s) (in this film) was the relationship between the lead and the minor-aged prostitute who he takes in and cares for – ultimately turning her life around (we are led to believe).  I would like to think this could happen in the real world; but I don’t believe it does.  And, finally, there is the teen suicide near the end of the film…  This changed a “thoughtful” movie into a “troubling” movie.  The movie has a line which says (roughly):  suicide is a permanent solution to temporary problems.  That is a VERY powerful message to anyone who feels:  “in this moment” I’m drowning in my problems.  What it doesn’t acknowledge is that suicide is also a permanent blockade to anything ever getting better and it’s a rare person who can recognize the moment when things start to change for the better – especially shortly after that moment has happened.
So, I probably would have recommended this movie higher than moderate, but I’m still not sure it is sending the “right / best / most helpful” message to the audience.  Maybe I need to raise the recommendation, but add a “viewer’s discretion advised” to my review.  The movie has brief frontal nudity, frequent swearing and implied sex and drug use and is not appropriate for youth or immature teens.
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On This Day In:
2023	For Most People It’s Called “A Day Job”
	Alone And Adrift
2022	5 In 6
2021	The Principal Difference
	Picture Perfect   (The Color Of Love)
2020	So Sad, Faux Crowd
	The Spirit Is Willing
2019	And The Same For Blogs And Posts
2018	The End Of Asgard (For Now)
	I Learn The Hard Way Every Time   (The Hard Way Every Time)
2017	For Some
2016	Fragile And Explosive, Provocation And Privacy
2015	Bound Up
2014	Economic Engines
2013	Weren’t You Supposed To Be Reading?
	Absent Friends
	Where I Stand
2012	Hangin’ With His P’s
	Help Save
2011	Six Facets Of Good Leadership

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