Frankly, the title The Penguin Lessons doesn’t appeal as it suggests some quirky British documentary or light-hearted pet ownership flick in the vein of Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion.
The title is far more than it admits.
It is a poignant dramedy which follows an Englishman, Tom Michell (Steve Coogan), into a private boarding school in Argentina in 1976 on the eve of a political revolution, the beginning of a seven-year-long
military coup.
Tom Michell teaches English to boys from wealthy families in St George’s College, an exclusive school with an inflated ego of its own importance, its Headmaster Buckle (Jonathan Pryce) having eyes on the prize solely of academic success, as long as no one within the school teaches ideas which upset the military and bring the school into question.
An old expression in show business
advised entertainers never to work with children or animals.
They’ll upstage the entertainer every time.
That didn’t apply to making The Penguin Lessons, a true story about a cynical curmudgeon (shades of The Holdovers) who’s not particularly thrilled with his latest teaching job, and it becomes apparent in his classroom demeanour and blanket attitude.
The beginning of the movie does not encourage audience appreciation. It was slow in development, pretty much ho-hum, and initial camerawork looked like a home movie. The tenor of the picture picks up and becomes an emotional rollercoaster, both moving and involving without ever drenching itself in cloyed mawkishness.
The trailer, incidentally, doesn’t do the
film justice.
A military coup d’état, as far as Tom is concerned, has to be life’s minor interference. He gets out of town until things settle. His impromptu weekend is to a resort in Uruguay; he walks on the beach and stumbles onto oil-drenched penguins suffocated and dying, bar one still struggling in the thick black goo.
Tom saves the penguin’s life and, despite efforts to restore it to the wild, he returns to Argentina, penguin in a carry bag, man and bird becoming the unlikeliest of mates. One might think this schmaltzy, a manipulative tale of Disney’s ilk.
Far from it.
With his tuxedoed penguin, Tom
befriends the cleaning lady Maria (Vivian El Jabar) and her politically active, left-wing granddaughter Sofia (Alfonsina Carrocio) who love the penguin, now named Juan Salvador.
Dictator-President Juan Peron died July 1 1974; he was succeeded by his wife, then vice-president, Isabel Peron.
The military, with support of United States President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, bided its time before ultimately seizing power.
In its Dirty War, an infamous campaign waged from 1976 to 1983, Argentina’s military dictatorship was suspicious of young left-wing political opponents.
10,000 to 30,000 citizens were killed; many “disappeared” – seized by the authorities and never heard from again.
We are witness to abductions on the street by military and secret police of people loosely associated with the school.
Tom can help, but is afraid. Mothers who protested about the “disappeared” in Plaza De Mayo 48 years ago are still active today.
So, how does one penguin figure in lessons? It does its duty whenever it needs on the floor. It chug-a-lugs sprats. Penguins mate for life and it misses its mate. It doesn’t speak. It listens. Though physically present among the cast, the penguin is a mentor and a metaphor. There’s genuine 8mm footage of the real people and penguin, anymore would be a spoiler.
