THE PENGUIN LESSONS

Name: THE PENGUIN LESSONS
Item: THE PENGUIN LESSONS
Author: Review

"Charming BUT Pro-Marxist Story"

Family Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

THE PENGUIN LESSONS is a dramatic comedy based on an autobiography. Tom Michell is a British English professor with no interest in the social turmoil surrounding his college in Argentina in 1976. The unrest leads Tom to take a vacation to Uruguay, where circumstances force him to rescue and hide a penguin in his apartment. The penguin creates friendly connections with the people around Tom. Eventually, despite Argentina’s new military government, Tom learns that valuing others and getting involved, even when it’s messy, is better than self-protection.

THE PENGUIN LESSONS is an engaging story. It promotes the revisionist history version of Argentina fight against communism without fumbling its jokes or animal-punctuated character development. Everything from the musical score to the colored lighting is put to good use in the story. The pacing veers calmly between scenes of tragedy and humor. Despite its charms, however, THE PENGUIN LESSONS leans too heavily on a Romantic, unbiblical message teaching that people are inherently good. The movie also clutters up its scenes with strong but brief foul language, some lewd content, bloodless violence, and references to socialism.

Content:

(B, RoRo, SoSo, E, P, LL, V, S, A, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Ultimately light moral worldview with the main character learning to care about others and value their lives, but marred by strong Romantic worldview leanings due to the setting’s revisionist socialist history, exemplified by every character from neutral headmasters to outright villains softening and demonstrating an inexplicable “innate goodness” after merely encountering a penguin, with many pro-socialist elements in addition to the setting of Argentina’s war against communism, such as a group of bullying characters consistently ally themselves with their fascist heritage while the consistently heroic underdog they torment is labeled a socialist, as well as brief environmentalist celebration based on the rescue of a penguin from an oil spill, which turns out to be the beginning of the main character’s heroic development, and there’s a brief nod to a patriotic worldview when a woman pleads for her kin’s freedom on the basis of her love for her home country;

Foul Language:

17 obscenities (including two “f” words and eight “s” words,) three strong profanities using the name of Jesus Christ, and three crude jokes;

Violence:

Brief violence with an older woman knocking a man over by hitting him in the face with a ladle, as well as two instances of implied violence when bruised characters are released from what is hinted to be torture, and one intense scene where a young woman is roughly dragged kicking and screaming into a car;

Sex:

No implied or depicted sex or bedroom scenes, but a woman goes on a date with and kisses the main character before revealing she’s married, and three sexual jokes;

Nudity:

No explicit nudity but a woman removes her stocking in a close-up for a non-sexual reason;

Alcohol Use:

Some alcohol use when a friend of the main character visits his apartment for a drink or when they go to a club together;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Some miscellaneous immorality as characters lie, smuggle a penguin in and out of countries and pet-prohibited buildings, breaking the rules is considered a heroic thing to do, the main character spends much of the movie being self-centered and indulgent while turning a blind eye to suffering, and justice is mocked in three separate instances when law-enforcers from different countries threaten the main character with arrest in the full knowledge that they have no charges against him.

More Detail:

THE PENGUIN LESSONS is a dramatic comedy based on the true story in Tom Michell’s autobiography, about an apathetic English professor who learns to care about other people from an unlikely feathered friend in the midst of one of Argentina’s periods of political turmoil. THE PENGUIN LESSONS is a loveable comedy with just enough drama to keep the viewer’s heart engaged, rooting for the growth of an old teacher and the wellbeing of his friends, both feathered and human, but the movie is marred by some foul language and pro-socialist content.

Steve Coogan plays Tom Michell, a listless English professor with a new job in politically-charged Argentina in 1976. When a military coup kicks off the so-called Dirty War, Tom carelessly uses the vacation time to visit Uruguay, where he unintentionally gets stuck caring for a penguin rescued from an oil spill. Though this new attachment is unwanted, antisocial Tom does find the bird’s friendliness bringing him closer to his students, his peers and even his housekeeper.

However, Tom’s determination not to get involved in the suffering of those around him causes tension, especially after he witnesses friends oppressed by the military government. With the help of his pet penguin, Tom must learn how to overcome fear and step back into caring about other people, even if it means breaking the rules.

THE PENGUIN LESSONS is an excellent dramedy, balancing the familiar charm of a pet-centered story with a dash of high emotional stakes. Careful visual storytelling is used to piece together loveable characters. For example, a repeated cut to Tom’s changing reaction when his shoes are dirtied by different events provides insight into his character’s development. The penguin character is refreshingly real, with no CGI to disconnect the audience’s emotions from the delight the characters are shown to be feeling as they watch the little bird explore the screen. When the darkness of the historical setting threatens to overstay its welcome, the actors deliver well-timed, believable jokes, or the scene gently transitions to beautiful shots of South American scenery. However, when a heavy moment does deserve a grieving response, the cast is just as skilled in delivering that emotion.

Despite the care it takes in timing and mood, THE PENGUIN LESSONS becomes reckless by adding some strong but brief foul language and crude jokes. It has a moral lesson about valuing others and standing up to injustice. However, this message is marred by the movie’s revisionist pro-socialist history, repeated argument that breaking the rules and trusting the supposed goodness inherent in everyone is the best way to express that value. Because of this Romantic worldview, which is joined by unnecessary foul language and a healthy helping of violence, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.