A good movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what it was really about before watching this movie and I have to admit that I was actually expecting something like ’Good Will Hunting’ and that the story would be dealing with a child prodigy who was discovered by his kindergarten teacher. However, this movie turned out to be after all more about the teacher herself then about her student but I think this unexpected approach was quite intriguing. Indeed, even if this woman seemed to have it all together at the beginning of the movie, she slowly started to unravel when she discovered this genius kid. At first, she seemed to have the best intentions but, from the moment she started to recite his poems during her class without mentioning who actually wrote them, you could feel that something was off. However, the way this character was handled was really humane and she was more than a crazy psychopath obsessing about her student. Basically, the bottom line is that a kid should be first and foremost simply a kid, no matter if they are a movie star, a prodigy, just plain average or even really stupid and that’s something this woman apparently forgot at some point. This character also worked because Maggie Gyllenhaal delivered here another really solid performance and she basically carried the whole thing on her shoulders. It’s too bad we don’t hear much about her nowadays as she is actually a fine actress. Unfortunately, beside showing this woman acting weirder and weirder and more and more inappropriate, this movie didn’t have much else to offer than this intriguing character study and I’m afraid it wasn’t enough to really dazzle me. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was missing something to become really amazing, it was still a decent drama and it is worth a look, especially if you have a weak spot for Maggie Gyllenhaal.