Could have been so much more

Rating: 5/10 (11 October 2014)

This movie is so convinced that its message is so wonderful and revolutionary when it is actually pretty ordinary, for 1989 or even 1959. And it spends very little time trying to prove its point. After two very short scenes with professor Keating, already the students are completely turned around to his way of thinking (which despite what anyone may claim is not the same thing as thinking for themselves). I did not believe this for one second.
Real life cannot be summed up in two Latin words. And poetry is one of the many wonderful ways we have that show us how complex and contradictory life can be. But none of the poems that are mentioned in this film are examined with any depth. They are simply plundered for simple-minded slogans, and the scenes of the reconstituted titular society are completely devoid of interest.
To quote Roger Ebert, Â«Â at the end of a great teacher's course in poetry, the students would love poetry; at the end of this teacher's semester, all they really love is the teacher.Â Â» When one of Keating's students commits suicide for reasons of plot convenience rather than character sense, Keating is asked to leave, a decision which I would find perfectly sound under the circumstances, but is treated by this film as a gross injustice.
If there's one aspect of this film that deserves praise, it's the acting. Williams gives a terrifically restrained performance (save the one scene where he reverts to his nightclub persona by impersonating various actors) and the adolescents also do their best with the shoddy material.
5.5/10