Lisa is a kindergarten teacher who spends her days with her young students, teachers them the alphabet and playing games. She takes poerty classes but her work is usually critiqued harshly by her classmates. She has little chemistry with her husband and is disappointed in her children who don't share her ideals of them having an intellectual or creative life. One day she hears one of her 5 year old students recite a poem. Finding out from his nanny that he does this quite often and upon hearing more of his poetry, she believes that Jimmy is a gifted prodigy. She becomes determined to nuture his talent even at the disapproval of his family and lack of support from own home. Her actions turning to desparate attempts to keep Jimmy's poems alive, she spirals out of control.
Part of the 'Reclaim the Frame' project which was started by Birds' Eye View who wanted to bring greater audiences to see films by women. This year kicked off with 'The Kindergarten Teacher' and a fantastic panel of speakers; a neuro-psychologist, a poet and filmmaker and founder of the Bechdel Test Fest.
The film poses the question about whether Lisa is a bad person or not. The decisions made by Lisa are unethical, especially considering the position of trust she is in. But she could also be right in wanting to nurture Jimmy's talent because as he gets older, this guft will be crushed by what's expected of him and what his family want from him.
As someone who feels starved of creativity from her work and home life, her poetry classes act as a sanctum, even though her own poetry doesn't inspire anyone in her class, including the teacher. She is openly disappointed with her two teenage kinds who don't want to follow in her so called intellectual footsteps. Her husband doesn't have much input in her life and barely registers with her once she becomes focused on Jimmy. Her desparate need for creative output is almost shunned before it can even becomes more than a few dull sentences on a page, but she finds peace with Jimmy, living vicariously through him and his poetry. To her, she is doing the right thing by pushing him to work, practice reciting his work and writing all his work down. By the end of the film, she accepts that the lenghths she has gone to to 'protect' Jimmy and his gift is too far and she has lost control. However, her fear that no one by her cares about his gift, is proved to be very real. The fact that his father doesn't care about his poetic talent, caring only whether he can make money or not aside, just from the last few moments in the film, Jimmy says he has a poem, but he is ignored, predicting exactly what society will do with him as he ages. No one cares about your poetry when you get older.
If the film has a genre, it would be a thriller in some ways, but one that is hightened not by the actions and soundtrack but by its delicacy, small actions and expressions which director Sara Colangelo brings through her own touch and gaze to the story. Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a brilliant complexity to her character, creatineg sympathy as well as anger, she makes you want to side with her and at the same time question her actions, a fantastic performance.
If you're looking for a film that will spark debate and discussion, The Kindergarten Teacher is out now, go see it and get others to join you.