Detachment (Tony Kaye, 2011): US

Reviewed by Alex Canzano, Santa Barbara Film Festival

From the controversial director who brought us American History X (1998), Detachment is Tony Kaye’s commentary on our failing public school system. The film features a star-studded cast, including Adrien Brody who gives a notable performance as substitute teacher and lead-protagonist Mr. Henry Barthes. It also includes unexpected appearances and cameos from Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks, Tim Blake Nelson, Lucy Liu, Blythe Danner, Bryan Cranston and my favorite of them all, James Caan. Obviously, the importance of the issues tackled in the film regarding the public school system was greatly appreciated by the actors, who all agreed to sign on undoubtedly knowing that their presence would generate considerable hype and offer major support for the film.

Henry Barthes vocation as substitute teacher lands him a job at a particularly vicious urban high school where his assignment is merely to get through a few weeks of teaching the curriculum, making sure each student meets the grade and test-score quota according to No Child Left Behind standards, and assuring that the students do not rape and kill each other, or set the building on fire in the process. Barthes’s unique understanding of existential bitterness and angst allows him to reach the students in a way that others are unable to, but the temporary nature of the job spares him from making any emotional connections or attachments.

The film portrays an extremely grim and hostile environment that proves to be a constant surrounding for Barthes, in and outside of school. The harsh world portrayed in the film and misconduct of the students may seem overly exaggerated and ridiculous at times but, being somewhat familiar with the area, I am sure anyone from Long Island, NY will find it a disturbingly accurate depiction- though no less ridiculous. The hand-held camera and grainy, washed-out look of the picture, give the film a documentary feel.

Although the subject matter is severely bleak and validly unsettling, it’s to such an extreme that it demands hardly any emotional investment– or attachment– to the characters or outcome. The film addresses a lot of the problems face-on but shows little prospect for change and offers virtually no solutions. Students are shown as being hopelessly depraved, slaughtering defenseless animals during their lunch break and threatening violence or, in one instance, rape upon their teachers.  Parents are constantly phoning in raged messages to the school for punishing their delinquent children, using the directives of social educational programs as defense against the student’s expulsion, but not a single one of them concerned or committed enough to show up to Parent/Teacher Night— seriously, not one. Other messages on the machine are left by disgruntled teachers to announce their resignation because they simply cannot carry on another day. Principal Carol Dearden (Marcia Gay Harden), in a sadly comical scene, gives her morning announcements from the floor of her office sprawled out, utterly defeated and devastated. Aspects of the school in the film, while maybe not to such a severe level, remind me of my own high school– in the sense that it was a joke.

As melodramatic and serious as the narrative might sound, the overall experience was surprisingly comical and entertaining without too much consequence to its purpose—despite maybe the ending which was possibly intended to be tragic or to make an impact but failed to do so, at least in my own experience. Nevertheless, the film succeeds in raising awareness to the challenges we face in the educational system and praises the teachers whose role is of the utmost importance but so often unappreciated by those they are devoted to.