In 1976, Tom Michel, a British bloke looking for a teaching jobs, winds up in Argentina at a prestigious private school. However, even a private school life is not separate from the chaos of the rising military dictatorship that threatens to control the country. As Michel, a cold and seemingly uncaring teacher is struggling to connect with his students, none of his colleagues seem to enjoy his company and neither does he.
He truly is just in it for a job.
That all changes as his selfish tendencies find him saving an oil-slicked penguin to impress a woman. The woman leaves, the penguin stays. At first adverse to the animal’s prescience, Tom still seems to not be able to escape him and, at every point, people seem more interested in Tom taking care of the penguin than anything Tom wants. But as his life gets more complicated with the military conflict knocking at his doorstep, the penguin becomes a symbol of hope for all who encounter it and Tom begins to embrace life at its challenging.
The film’s tone combines a lot of different films’ most endearing parts. It’s a ‘fish out of water’ story like any film where a western English man goes to a foreign country (Lawrence of Arabia, Lost in Translation, Shogun, The Last Samurai). We have a set up like Dead Poet’s Society where he’s a teacher who teaches them about the stories and ideas that may give them hope in a trying time despite his students being privileged and used to a strict formula for learning. Together, they face the hard times. But, to be fair, Michel is not like Robin William’s John Keating. Here, he’s a much more pessimistic and snobby teacher. At first, he doesn’t really care if show students succeed. He simply wants to make the most of his time there and get paid. It also has elements of Life is Beautiful and I’m Still Here where characters have to gain the courage to confront the fascist military control that’s threatening their friends and principles. Then, it will also have the elements of Mr. Poppers Penguins as a penguin becomes an endearing symbol who will bring them all together.
Further, Lessons is certainly reliant on the charm of its screenplay and actors. However, the star with the most charm is the penguin himself, who ends adopting the name Juan Salvador. His expressions and the way that he looks at characters make us think he knows everything that is happening and chooses to do the funny animal-like thing anyway. Every scene with him makes the situation more interesting. From the heartwarming bits, to the B-Roll, to the intense confrontations or the comedic situations, Juan Salvador always manages to be on the scene.
Steve Coogan also does a lot of heavy lifting as the film’s protagonist. No other character is really featured without him around. Even so, he does a really solid job playing this fairly charming but cold man who we see a clear transformation in over the course of the film. The cinematography, editing, music and sound all are well done. No choice made on this film takes away from the charm on screen, they know where their stories heart and hook is. However, this does render the presentation a little underwhelming making even the most interesting scenes a bit boring to look at and certainly you imagine it could have more energy at points.
In the end, The Penguin Lessons is a hopeful statement that shows how a creature that isn’t human can show us why humans are so special. The responsibility that Juan Salvador gives Tom pushes him to encounter more people and, in a way, he is born again. Even as he gets into tougher situations than he had been in before, he feels alive as he stands up for what he believes in. Ultimately, the real Tom Michel fulfilled his dream because one penguin gave him the inspiration to write a book about the life he got pushed towards. Without question, this is crowd pleaser that’s worth checking out.
The Penguin Lessons is available in theatres on Friday, March 28th, 2025.
