Excellent story and superb direction...

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2002)

1st watched 4/7/2002 - 7 out of 10(Dir-Peter Weir): Excellent story and superb direction by Weir make this drama work. There have been many movies about teacher's who relate to their students in greater ways than what normally is expected but this one is more about the students than the teacher. Robin Williams plays a new English teacher for a very high-brow preparatory school and doesn't follow the book to teach his kids. He emphasizes that they "Sieze" every day because it may be their last and teaches them how poetry is about passion of life rather than just a subject in school. Some of the students grab a-hold of his teaching and form a secret soceity that reads poetry in a scary cave near the school. The philosophy bleeds into their lives and starts to reek havic on their normal everyday lives but they for once are truly learning about themselves and learning from their life experiences. A tragedy occurs with one of the students and this is where the story takes a turn and life starts to be the judge as to whether the students really believe what they think they do. Excellent performances and a compelling story keep you involved with the characters till the end. In my opinion, the ending left a lot to be desired but the rest of the movie was a typical well-done Peter Weir directed story.