It?s terrible when schools fail our children. But it?s not so great when movies fail their actors, either. In ?Won?t Back Down,? Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis star as, respectively, a concerned single mom and a teacher who?s lost her mojo. Together they fight the man ? and the teacher?s union ? to take over and remodel a dismal Pittsburgh school.
The two actresses do everything that?s asked of them, and more. But the movie around them plays like a scrambled-egg mix of ?Erin Brockovitch? and ?Dangerous Minds,? with the worst bits of both: It may be enthusiastic, but it sure is unfocused. It?s like those classroom banners that urge kids toward noble goals ? ?Dare to Be Who You Are!? ? without offering any specific tips on how to get there.
?Won?t Back Down? opens with a sequence that attempts to both raise our ire and pluck at our sympathies: A checked-out-looking teacher ? there?s a shoe-shopping site blatantly open on her computer screen ? nags away at a tiny, peaked-looking student who?s struggling to read a few simple words scrawled on the blackboard. The other students giggle, whisper and shuffle their feet restlessly as the girl?s frustration mounts.
This little moppet?s name is Malia (she?s played by Emily Alyn Lind) and she?s clearly dyslexic, though her teacher seems to think that if the kid just stares at the board long enough, the letters will miraculously find their correct order in her brain. Malia?s mother, Jamie (Gyllenhaal), knows what the problem is. But she can?t afford to send her daughter to private school, and a lottery system prevents her from getting Malia into a prestigious charter school.
Meanwhile, Nona (Davis), a teacher at Malia?s current school, half-heartedly attempts to interest her students in the definition of a verb, but she acts as if she?s had all the life ? or at least all the action words ? kicked out of her. Her marriage to an overbearing school-administrator type is failing, and her own son appears to be learning disabled. Jamie and Nona meet accidentally, and Jamie enlists Nona?s help in sneaking through a hastily explained legal loophole that allows concerned parents and teachers to completely reform a failing school. Meanwhile, an adorable ukulele-playing teacher (Oscar Isaac) woos Jamie while also worrying that any teachers who side with her will no longer have the protection of the teacher?s union.
Did I mention that now and then Holly Hunter, dressed in an assortment of jaunty scarves ? and even, at one point, a beret ? trots efficiently through the picture? She?s a union leader who attempts, pretty blatantly, to buy Jamie out with the promise that she can get Malia into a state-of-the-art school.
?Won?t Back Down? heads off in so many directions at once, and half-heartedly glosses over so many complicated issues, that it feels a little dyslexic itself. Writer-director Daniel Barnz ? whose previous credits include ?Beastly? (2011) and ?Phoebe in Wonderland? (2008) ? is clearly trying as hard as he can to keep this excessively complicated story moving along. (A title card tells us it?s based on real-life events.)
And still, the picture drags like the last day of school before summer vacation. Davis, who was doing astonishing work in roles big and small well before she earned Academy Award nominations for ?Doubt? and ?The Help,? is wholly believable here: At first, she carries her character?s exhaustion in the heavy, rounded slope of her shoulders; later, her renewed enthusiasm seems to fortify her very bones ? she stands taller and walks more boldly. But she can?t keep the story from repeatedly wobbling off track, and Gyllenhaal ? whose eyes and skin glow so radioactively they appear to be lit from within ? can?t bring her considerable powers of conviction to bear, either. Gyllenhaal?s Jamie desperately loves her child and wants the best for her.
But beyond that, the performance has nothing to build on or toward. If Jamie were a classroom banner, she?d be one that reads ?Believe!? And even if you really, really want to, you may still be the kid sitting in the back of the classroom, gazing out the window and waiting for the moment when you?ll finally be set free.
Grade: C-
Categories: Movies, Reviews
Tags: maggie gyllenhaal, viola davis, Won't Back Down, Won't Back DownSource: http://www.film.com/movies/review-wont-back-down-2012
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