The Penguin Lessons

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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Peter Cattaneo (“The Full Monty”) directs the fluid and pleasant “The Penguin Lessons.” Despite some pull on the heart strings, it is not sappy or cloying and has the good sense to be reasonably understated. The story is spirited and affectionate, which makes it all the more entertaining. 

It is 1976. Tom Michell (Steve Coogan ) is a mildly depressed English teacher trying his luck at an Argentinian school for boys. He is sardonic but not terminally so and has a self-deprecating humor. He bristles at authority and is somewhat quirky.

Faced with a group of loud and spoiled students, Tom loses his enthusiasm to teach. He can’t reach them. As chance would have it the government is breaking down and becoming violent. The college closes for a week.

Michell goes to Uruguay for some R&R, accompanied by a girlfriend that he hopes to be romantic with, he happens to see a penguin gasping for breath because of an oil spill. Encouraged by his companion, he rescues the penguin and gives it a bath. 

A day later, after the girlfriend leaves, a sour Michell attempts to release the penguin back into the ocean. The penguin repeatedly and obstinately returns to the teacher. Approached by the police, Michell vows to leave the webbed bird, but the police insist that he will be arrested if he does not take the avian with him. 

Michell accepts that he is stuck with the penguin by a set of chance circumstances, and he takes the animal to class. The students are delighted. The penguin is named Juan Salvador. The staff begins to seek out the bird as a catalyst for voicing confession and offering relaxation.

Michell increasingly relies on Juan Salvador for equilibrium due to the fear of political violence. During dialogue exchanges, the penguin moves its head back-and-forth, as if understanding the emotion of human communication.

In other hands such interspecies camaraderie could be the stuff of Hallmark or Disney, but this has enough serious gravity to make it a solid human drama, rather than soap bubbles and sugar cubes. Juan Salvador is a symbol of anti-fascism, expression, and freedom.

Juan Salvador is a spiritual being, an empathetic engine that melts the emotional and physical barriers of both Michell and the college, allowing both to become more nuanced and joyful. 

This film is no pablum for penguins, but a direct and measured story about a frightened and reserved man opening up through his contact with nature. That being said, one will no doubt be compelled to release the white birds of Kleenex during the film’s finale.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com