¨A child's intelligent heart can fathom the
depth of many dark places, but can it fathom the delicate moment of its own
detachment? ¨
Detachment is a very interesting film although
I wouldn’t say it`s entertaining. It raises a lot of questions and social
issues without giving many answers, but it does make us aware of many problems
that our society is facing when it comes to the educational system and parents
lack of involvement in it. I thought Detachment was a beautiful film and
despite it being a narrative it didn’t seem like one; it is sort of poetic at
times and has some great use of imagery. Adrian Brody is such a talented actor,
and despite winning the Oscar for his brilliant work in The Pianist, I think he
is very underrated in Hollywood. He is so good in this movie, and in my opinion
it`s his best performance since The Pianist. He was one of the reasons why I
wanted to see this film; the other being that it was directed by Tony Kaye, the
man responsible for American History X, which is on my list of favorite films.
His films are powerful, thought provoking, and Detachment is not the exception.
He can make memorable films although you wouldn’t necessarily call them
entertaining. In Detachment we are introduced to a very common problem:
education. Kaye makes us wonder whether or not education is the teacher or
parent`s responsibility. Probably both, but unfortunately neither seem to be
doing a great job and our society is losing its educational battle. Kids seem
to find values somewhere else and base their self worth on what their friends
think of them, meanwhile parents and teachers seem to do nothing about
restoring their value. Parenting and teaching are great responsibilities, and
as Brody says in one of his monologues in the movie there should be
prerequisites to parenting and not anyone should be allowed too.
Adrian Brody plays a substitute teacher, Mr.
Barthes, who believes he has the perfect job because he doesn’t have to carry
the burden of identifying or carrying for his students. He can travel from one
school to another. He is a lonely, quiet, and sad man who doesn’t like attaching
to anyone. He seems to have some disturbing memories about his past and doesn’t
like to talk about his problems so traveling from place to place is a good way
to remain detached to society. His life will change when he gets his latest
assignment at a very problematic school run by Principle Carol Dearden (Marcia
Gay Harden). The students in this school give the teachers a very hard time and
many of them seem to be going through a living hell. Mr. Barthes identifies
with some of the teachers and students here. Mr. Seaboldt (James Caan), Ms.
Madison (Christina Hendricks), Ms. Perkins (Blythe Danner), Mr. Wiatt (Tim
Blake Nelson), and Dr. Doris Parker (Lucy Liu) are all part of the school
faculty and all seem to be going through some sort of personal hardship. Mr.
Barthes begins to identify himself with some of these people like Ms. Madison
who seems as lonely as he is. He also begins to give special attention to one
of his students named Meredith (Betty Kaye) who despite being talented doesn’t really
value herself. Another person who begins to influence Mr. Barthes is a young
hooker named Erica (Sami Gayle) who he picks up from the street and begins to
care for as a child. As much as Barthes wants to remain detached to people he
begins to identify with many of them and without realizing it attaching to
them.
Detachment has a great cast. As I mentioned
before this is Adrian Brody`s best work since The Pianist, but I also have to
give a lot of credit to young Sami Gayle who delivers a powerful performance as
the lonely hooker who is taken advantage of and really has no self worth
whatsoever. Director Kaye seems to raise this issue quite a bit since there are
many characters who have little or no self value and in a way Brody`s character
tries to teach them that they have value and don’t have to live based on the
expectations or values given to them by others. James Caan and Christina
Hendricks also give believable performances as part of the faculty. They are
very different in character, but I think we all can identify them to some of
the teachers we`ve had in the past. There are some very strong performances in
this film and also some great dialogues. The script was written by first time
screenwriter, Carl Lund, and it really is thought provoking. The imagery that
Kaye uses is also very beautiful. There is a sense of claustrophobia as we see
these long shots closing in on the school hallway, and emptiness when we see
the abandoned classrooms. Detachment might not be an entertaining film you can
watch with your friends, but it is a very interesting and thought provoking film.
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