{"id":11510,"date":"2025-03-22T19:06:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T23:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11510"},"modified":"2025-04-23T00:52:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T04:52:55","slug":"the-penguin-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/03\/22\/the-penguin-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"The Penguin Lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Penguin Lessons<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sony Pictures Classics\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (strong language, some sexual references, thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Cattaneo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jeff Pope\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Federico Jusid\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Xavi Gimenez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 28, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Steve Coogan, Bjorn Gustafsson, Jonathan Pryce, Alfonsina Carrocio, Vivian El Jaber, David Herrero, Aimar Miranda, Nicanor Fernandez, Hugo Fuertes, Joaquin Lopez, Miguel Alejandro Serrano, Micaela Breque.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0The new comedy-drama The Penguin Lessons<\/strong> puts a different spin on the \u201cman and his animal\u201d movie. Instead of the usual lighthearted story filled with cute animal antics (it has those), it throws in a volatile political situation by setting it in 1976 Argentina. That was the year President Isabel Peron was overthrown and the military took over. It was the start of a nearly a decade of fear and instability during which anybody deemed a threat was taken away by police. Most of them were never seen again. It was a horrific time. Here endeth the history lesson.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Amidst all the turmoil, a British guy arrived in the country to start a new life. Tom Michell (Coogan, Alan Partridge) is hired to teach English lit to a group of privileged teen boys at a private school. Upon arrival, the uptight twit of a headmaster (Pryce, Brazil) warns Tom to avoid the subject of politics. They\u2019re only there to educate the boys, not incite a revolution. He\u2019s fine with that. He doesn\u2019t want to get personally involved with anybody anyway. He\u2019s isn\u2019t the most personable person in the world. He just wants to be left alone.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Tom\u2019s class is a nightmare. It\u2019s a bunch of unruly kids who aren\u2019t interested in what he\u2019s trying to teach. Instead, they play pranks on him and bully this one boy whose father is a known Socialist. The school shuts down for a week due to the coup d\u2019etat. Tom uses the unscheduled break as an excuse to go to Uruguay and party. He meets this gorgeous woman (Breque) at a club. They go for a walk on the beach where they find a bunch of penguins that fell victim to an oil slick. One of them is still alive. In order to impress the lady, Tom sneaks the bird into his hotel room and cleans him up. It\u2019s all for naught as the lady is married. When Tom tries to return the creature to its natural habitat, he won\u2019t go. Instead, he follows his new human friend. Long story short, Tom is left with no choice but to take the penguin home with him until he can make other arrangements. This entails keeping his presence a secret due to the school\u2019s no-pets policy. I think you can see where this is going.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), The Penguin Lessons<\/strong> is sort of an avian version of Dead Poets Society with the school\u2019s newest resident helping to inspire students, faculty and staff alike. He\u2019s dubbed \u201cJuan Salvador\u201d by the no-nonsense, gold-hearted caretaker Maria (Jaber) and her politically outspoken 19YO granddaughter Sofia (Carrocio, Society of the Snow). The chemistry teacher (Gustafsson, Spy), a humor-challenged fellow from Denmark, comes to see the bird as a confidante. He\u2019s the only one who will sit and listen as he prattles on about his ex-wife. Even the stuffy headmaster comes to like him. Most importantly, Tom becomes a better person. The formerly apathetic teacher comes to see things in a new light as he finds his way back from a life-changing personal tragedy that occurred many years before.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It must have been a risky move adapting the real Tom Michell\u2019s memoir to film. The mix of cute animal drama and political thriller is odd and even off-putting at times. It\u2019s hard to know how to reconcile the two. One minute you\u2019re seeing the penguin waddle around the school grounds; the next you\u2019re seeing somebody snatched from the street by the police to face an uncertain fate just for speaking their mind. One of these unfortunate people is Sofia. Tom stands and watches helplessly as the frightened girl is taken away. He feels tremendous guilt over his inaction. This is the ideological kick in the butt he needs to get involved. To the film and filmmaker\u2019s credit, Cattaneo doesn\u2019t dwell on the story\u2019s uglier aspects. It looms without overtaking the story. He manages just the right balance more or less.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m not a particular fan of Coogan. I typically find him incredibly annoying. I absolutely hate the Trip movies he made with Rob Brydon. I didn\u2019t like the Alan Partridge movie either. The only ones I like him in are Philomena (2013) and Stan & Ollie (2018). The Penguin Lessons<\/strong> is one of his best if not the best. He\u2019s great as a man who\u2019s been cut off emotionally for so long; he doesn\u2019t remember how to connect with others. His thawing out is completely believable. Pryce is also good as the headmaster who isn\u2019t actually an authoritarian. He\u2019s more of a twit with power. Gustafsson has some nice scenes as the best friend Tom didn\u2019t ask for or even want. Carrocio doesn\u2019t have too many scenes, but she\u2019s good as Sofia, an outspoken teen ready for revolution.<\/p>\n

\u00a0To the film\u2019s immense credit, it doesn\u2019t rely at all on CGI. The makers use a real penguin in some scenes and an animatronic one in others. It works like a charm. Juan Salvador is a lovable bird. In addition, Cattaneo perfectly recreates the 70s with Coogan\u2019s wardrobe and the discos of Uruguay. I especially loved the use of the Tina Charles song \u201cI Love to Love\u201d. The Penguin Lessons<\/strong> really is a great movie. It\u2019s compelling and heartwarming. It may even evoke a tear or two. It\u2019s the very definition of a sleeper. I hope audiences discover it.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Penguin Lessons (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sony Pictures Classics\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (strong language, some sexual references, thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Cattaneo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jeff Pope\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Federico Jusid\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Xavi Gimenez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 28, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Steve Coogan, Bjorn Gustafsson, Jonathan Pryce, Alfonsina Carrocio, Vivian El Jaber, David Herrero, Aimar Miranda, Nicanor Fernandez, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/The-Penguin-Lessons-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11510"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11523,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11510\/revisions\/11523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}