The Kindergarten Teacher

This is a subtle film. It takes a little while to focus on who is clearly the child of primary focus, character wise (the teacher aside). I really rate Maggie Gyllenhaal as an actress - she is quite expressive and it shows that she cares for and truly wants to encourage the child's creative talent. I should point out that there is more going on than first seems but I won't elaborate, obviously so as not to provide any spoilers of course. However, there is also a darker side that is suggested at times and that made me curious to find out more about the childs family/background. The music played (mostly stringed instruments) gives it a slightly spooky and sort of claustrophobic angle as well. There is some poignant dialogue and I thought this film was well made, hence I'd recommend it - the only downside I felt was that there are unanswered questions by the end, which may frustrate you.

“Anna is beautiful, beautiful enough for me. The sun hits her yellow house, it’s almost like a sign from God”. This is the poem uttered eerily instinctively by five-year old Jimmy (Parker Sevak) in Sara Colangelo’s The Kindergarten Teacher, a tantalising remake of the Israeli film of the same name. Jimmy’s poetic compositions seem only to catch the curiosity of his kindergarten teacher, Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who we see is quietly disillusioned with the mundanity of her everyday life and distanced from her family. Her only passion appears to be poetry; she attends late night classes with an attractive professor (Gael Garcia Bernal), but he thinks her poems are “derivative” and lack originality. But something snaps when she hears Jimmy’s poem; her intrigue in the child’s ‘gift’ (“We’re dealing with a young Mozart”) steadily begins to slide into obsession, making for a delightfully unsettling psychodrama where Gyllenhaal is the true star. The Kindergarten Teacher is a thoroughly interesting film, teeming with nuance and subtleties. It’s a definite slow burn, a film that creeps up the tension, walking that knife edge between believable and otherwise just as its character does. Initially when we meet Lisa, her loneliness is palpable. Much of the film, however, focuses on her relationship with this young boy, as her actions become all the more disconcerting; nap times are replaced with exchanges of phone numbers, Jimmy’s babysitter is fired so Lisa can spend more time with him and so on. It’s a masterfully crafted piece, conjuring a distinctly sinister tone that still manages to cement itself in reality and blossoms with ambiguity. Whilst Colangelo is an assured directing talent and the young Parker Sevak is remarkable, the real force behind The Kindergarten Teacher is Maggie Gyllenhaal, who delivers one of the most understated yet powerful performances of her career. Often the camera will settle woozily just on her face; even with no words, Gyllenhaal’s expressions seep with isolation, loneliness and, upon ‘discovering’ Jimmy’s talent, a creepily ecstatic sense of hope. It is Gyllenhaal who manages to keep the film grounded; even as Lisa’s actions become all the more unnerving, the performance allows us to totally buy her motives and keep us strangely sympathetic. It is safe to say that The Kindergarten Teacher is not a film for everyone. The pace is deliberately unhurried, allowing the story to unfold with gripping if sometimes frustrating slowness. Equally, it’s a film of unanswered questions; are Lisa’s actions simply out of nurture? Is Jimmy being groomed? How far should one go in the pursuit of art? Is Lisa the only one who truly recognises Jimmy’s talent? Most cynical of all… is Jimmy even as good as Lisa insists he is? These themes and questions are explored yet blissfully never explained in the film; in the end, the answers are left purely to our perception. The subject matter is never covered too overtly or with any gratuity; for example, there is no suggestion of a sexual element to Lisa and Jimmy’s relationship. The Kindergarten Teacher is far cleverer than that; though Lisa’s actions are never shown positively, neither are they shown negatively either. Is she actually the only one helping Jimmy? Colangelo proves nothing here is black and white. In terms of the general craftsmanship, there is impressive work here too. Asher Goldschmidt’s score is jagged and tense and Pepe Avila del Pino’s camera sweeps with versatility from wide landscapes to intimate close-ups. All in all, The Kindergarten Teacher is an expert piece of filmmaking, subtle and complex. It’s the sort of movie that will leave you thinking about it for days after, pondering its riddles and marvelling at that gorgeous central performance.