So Miramax

Rating: 6/10 (1 March 2015)

This is the kind of stereotypically bland foreign film that the Academy loves to nominate in the Foreign Film category (I think they've gotten a bit better about it in the past several years). It's also a pretty stereotypical inspirational teacher story in the vein of Goodbye Mr. Chips. Gerard Jugnot stars as a kindly teacher who comes along to a boarding school for troubled boys. These kids are downright violent, so one would think this fat, balding, middle-aged man would have a lot of difficulty with them. He has a little, but they turn good pretty quick because he's nicer than the average teacher. Plus, he teaches them to sing, which is, you know, what the film is about. Jugnot is fine, and the children aren't bad actors. The music is really the saving grace. This is one of a small handful of foreign films that was also Oscar nominated outside of the Foreign Film category, this one in the Song category, Bruno Calais (who wrote one of my all-time favorite scores for the film Coraline) and director Christophe Barratier for the song "Vois Sur Ton Chemin."