Detachment (2011)
Directed by Tony Kaye
A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment.
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13 films that influenced Detachment
What critics say influenced Detachment
(Long before the current crisis in public education, films like “Up the Down Staircase” and “Conrack” were more about brave attempts than about inspiring successes.)
With echoes of earlier teacher-in-crisis-mode dramas, especially Robert Mulligan’s 1967 classic Up the Down Staircase, the overwhelmed staff at this urban high school are in hunker-down mode, waiting for the storm to pass.
Director Tony Kaye ’s (“American History X”) tough movie owes a lot to Paddy Chayefsky ’s script for 1971’s “The Hospital” — which is perhaps too complimentary a comparison.
In fact, Detachment makes Blackboard Jungle look like a trip to Disneyland.
We catch up with him in a school that makes the setting of Blackboard Jungle look like Kukla, Fran and Ollie, where a distinguished cast is largely wasted as various cynical faculty members.
Kaye once shot more film for a 30-second Volvo commercial than Woody Allen had used in making “Hannah and Her Sisters.”
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It’s a premise we’ve seen many, many times before in films like Stand and Deliver and Dangerous Minds.
We’ve even seen the principal get involved when it comes to getting those low test scores up in Lean on Me.
Adrien Brody brings his offbeat brand of weary, roguish intensity to the role of substitute teacher Henry Barthes, a damaged empath whose commitment to a dispirited student body is admirable, while his bond to an underage prostitute (Sami Gayle) he tries to save carries worrisome shades of "Taxi Driver."
The slim plot consists of Henry’s decision to save a young prostitute (newcomer Sami Gayle) from the mean streets, much like Robert DeNiro did with Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver.
But the film would be better if Kaye hadn't included a Taxi Driver subplot in which Brody rescues a teen hooker in fishnets (Sami Gayle).
He's as convincing as a teacher as Ryan Gosling in "Half Nelson" and he's the perfect lynchpin for what's a rather complex subject matter.
Even more absurdly than the Ryan Gosling junkie-teacher vehicle Half Nelson , Detachment is all about the cute teacher's crises and his babbling about "this sea of pain we're all in," and even before its jaw-dropping tragic climax at the worst cupcake sale ever.
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In only a handful of scenes, Lucy Liu (2007's " Code Name: The Cleaner ") brings such a gritty, mournful quality to Dr. Parker that one fully understands and sympathizes with her instantly.
Directed by Tony Kaye (American History X), Detachment tells the story of an emotionally withdrawn substitute teacher, Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody), whose world is turned upside down as his professional and personal life simultaneously begin to unravel and the walls he’s built around himself crumble, leaving him completely exposed.
Director Tony Kaye's depiction of a substitute teacher's hellish experience in a public high school makes his "American History X" seem lighthearted by comparison.
Detachment, directed by Tony Kaye (American History X) from a first screenplay by Carl Lund, paints an extremely disturbing picture of education today -- too many disrespectful, mean, apathetic, violent students as well as teachers, counselors and administrators who have given up.
There’s considerable gap between the level of ambition and intent and the level of success and execution in “Detachment,” the new, disappointing melodrama by enfant terrible Tony Kaye, still best known for “American History X.”
Former teacher Carl Lund's lost-souls screenplay has all the hallmarks of something issue-smart yet dramatically amateurish, which in the hands of filmmaker Tony Kaye ( "American History X" ) — not known for subtlety — certainly makes for emotional unpredictability.