DAN WEBSTER:
Hard times call for hardy people, or so goes one version of a hackneyed phrase. As with most clichés, though, such sentiments usually—though not always—reflect at least some semblance of truth.
But what kind of hardiness is called for? What kind of bravery? And from what well of self-regard does such an attitude emerge? These are questions that are raised, if tangentially and not very effectively, in The Penguin Lessons, an adaptation of British author Tom Michell’s 2016 memoir of the same name.
It was in the 1970s that Michell—who hails, he wrote, “from the gentle Downs of rural Sussex”—took a job teaching English at a tony Argentinian boarding school. It was a turbulent time. The country’s former president, Juan Perón, had died and his successor, his widow Isabel Perón, was under threat. (She was eventually forced out in 1976 by a military junta.)
Michell’s memoir, which a reviewer in The Guardian described as “for the most part, heartwarmingly eccentric,” doesn’t confront the coup so much as reminisce about an incident that—had it been fictional—could have been part of a story played out by that fictional bear named Paddington.
The Paddington in Michell’s case was an oil-drenched penguin that he encountered on an Urguyan beach, cleaned up and then had to adopt because the animal refused to leave his side. Michell ended up bringing the penguin, thereafter named Juan Salvador after the Spanish version of Richard Bach’s novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull, back to his school.
And the bird ended up being adopted by the school at large, helping Michell engage with his students.
The film, which was directed by Peter Cattaneo, from a screenplay written by Jeff Pope, stars Steve Coogan—who at the age of 59 is more than 30 years older than Michell was when he taught in Argentina. And aside from that difference, Pope’s screenplay had to account for Coogan’s natural acerbic sense of humor (which is on best display in the series of Trip movies that he’s made with fellow comic performer Rob Brydon).
Thus Cattaneo and Pope’s version of Michell has him arriving in Argentina, jaded about life and intent on doing little more than finding time to take a much-needed nap. The movie’s shorthand explanation of who this movie Michell is comes when his genial fellow teacher (played by the Swedish actor Bjõrn Gustafsson) tells him, “I like you, Michell.” Michell’s answer is frank: “I don’t,” he says.
He is only too willing, at first, to follow the rules put down by the school’s director (played by Jonathan Pryce), whose basic reaction to the country’s problems are to declaim that “Argentina is in chaos!” and to warn Michell that referring to anything overtly political could cause problems.
It's on a week-long jaunt to Uruguay that Michell happens upon the hapless Magellanic penguin. After reluctantly agreeing to save the bird—“I was trying to impress a woman I wanted to sleep with,” he explains to questioning bystanders—he basically is forced to take it back with him.
While at first having trouble making the trek—sequences involving customs officials are comic fantasy—once back home Michell ends up gradually evolving from a study in self-absorption to someone who actually cares about people.
This is made clear when, after seeing a woman—an acquaintance, actually—kidnapped, he confronts a shady government official. When he himself is subsequently arrested, though later released, his transformation is complete.
But is it fairly earned? Has he made any kind of actual sacrifice? Instead of providing any real answers, Cattaneo and Pope opt for glibness. When asked by Pryce’s disapproving director what made Michell change, he offers up only a simple answer: “I met a penguin,” he says.
For a film set during a time when some 30,000 Argentinians either died or were disappeared, capping things off with such a feel-good cliché feels sadly inappropriate if not downright insulting.
For Spokane Public Radio, I’m Dan Webster.
——
Movies 101 host Dan Webster is the senior film critic for Spokane Public Radio and a blogger for spokesman.com.