Last March, I wrote a movie review here. I mentioned how I tend to steer clear of recommending movies (or tv shows, or albums, or books) because I realize that tastes vary and what I think is good you might regard as rubbish, and vice versa. I could tell you my favorite tv show right now is Unforgotten on PBS Masterpiece, my favorite album is Songs for a Nervous Planet by Tears for Fears, and my favorite book is The Lick of Love: How dogs changed my life by Julian Clary, but for those recommendations to have any real heft and potentially persuade you to give one (or all) of them a try, I’d have to get into why I like them. My reasons are complex and not always suitable for publication.
But I can tell you why I liked – no loved – the movie The Penguin Lessons.
Like many people living through the current state of the world, I worry, a lot. And my body has begun to show signs of wear after 59 years, to the point that radiation for cancer and surgery for an enlarged prostate that is interfering with my ability to urinate properly, which in turn is causing chronic, recurring, painful infections of the urinary tract, are in my immediate future. I worry about those things too. I realized recently that worrying creates the illusion of control; rather than passively just accepting the horror in the headlines or the general sense of doom that has descended upon me when I contemplate my health challenges, worrying means I’m doing something about them. But I’m not, am I? I’m actually just making myself miserable.
So I’ve been searching for ways to settle my hyperactive brain. My anxiety’s high, my brain’s short-circuiting, and I needed something to help soothe the agitated static inside my head – something engaging enough that it distracts me but doesn’t get me spiraling or thinking too much. Then I found this movie.
It’s a true story based on a memoir by the main character, a mopey, mentally checked-out teacher named Tom Michell at a boys’ private school in Buenos Aires, Argentina, played by Steve Coogan, set against the backdrop of a Right-wing military dictatorship taking over the country. But that’s not really what this movie is actually about. You know going in this is gonna be “sad, unpleasant guy becomes nicer after taking care of someone, or something.”
And that “something” is an emperor penguin that Michell rescues from an oil slick while trying to get laid on vacation at a Uruguayan seaside resort. The penguin bonds with Michell who is left with no choice but to bring him back to St. George’s College in the suburb of Quilmes and reluctantly allow him to become his roommate at the boarding school (contravening the school’s “no pets” rule) even though he stinks and keeps pooping all over the floor. His maid names the penguin Juan Salvador, and, as is always the case in stories like these, he is the catalyst for a remarkable transformation, of students and faculty and staff alike.
It’s all pretty formulaic – a sullen reprobate who lightens up and redeems himself with the humanizing help of an animal unaware that he is teaching the main character how to care. There is a central tragedy that the film does feel deeply. I think you know what I’m getting at. If you’re anything like me, you’ll cry along with Coogan’s character Michell as he sits on the bathroom floor looking at a bar of soap that Juan Salvador had nurtured and cared for because he thought it was an unhatched egg.
Looking for a serious, historical treatment of Argentina’s so-called “Dirty War” in which 30,000 people were killed or disappeared between 1976 and 1983? I suggest you look elsewhere, possibly to the 2021 drama Azor; just don’t expect penguins. On the other hand, if, like me, you need a break from all the worrying, and you want to spend 2 hours in a predictable, feel-goody way, I cannot recommend this film highly enough (it’s on Netflix). Did I mention Jonathan Pryce plays the school’s headmaster? Jonathan Pryce – an actor so good he could sit in an empty room humming and I’d find it compelling!
By the end, it is clear that the film’s title (and that of the book it is based on) isn’t just referring to the penguin’s presence in Michell’s classroom, but rather evokes Juan Salvador’s role in bringing back to life the kindhearted man Tom Michell forgot he once was. It’s a familiar enough story arc that I found it comforting, engaging without being too challenging, and downright enjoyable. And if you’re not already cried out, save some tears for the end credits which include about ten seconds of grainy home movie footage from the 70s in Argentina of the actual Juan Salvador filmed by the actual Tom Michell.