Nicely crafted commercial movie.

Rating: 5/10 (27 July 2006)

Music is the best this fable has to offer.
The plot is full of commonplaces, its characters are so cartoonish one can hardly feel anything for anybody, and I felt manipulated all the time. We've seen this story too many times. Better told, by Dickens, and even worse, like in "Devil's backbone/ El espinazo del diablo" and Mr Holland's Opus.
I liked the way it shows the harsh life of this forgotten "layer" of society, good for those who idealize "all things European" like I do. Yes, the scenery is beautiful. So is Marie Brunel (Violette, Pierre's mum), in a pivotal secondary role. The sexual tension is greatly resolved! Gerard Jugnot IS great as the self-effacing but brilliant school teacher. Rachin, the principal/ headmaster, is quite overdone and erratic, but I'm sure it's the story that sucks. He does very well with a stupid character. His final attack on Clement is well done, I guess it's the only moment I felt I wasn't watching a film for children.
The boys are VERY well cast, all of them. From the soloist soprano (what a voice!) to the criminal "Mondain" (name! *like Dickens :) ), the curly one, the "pedestal", and "Pepinot", the cute dreamy one who longs for his parents. The countess is fine too.
It has a lot to say about educators in harsh conditions. Things must be much worse now that then, but Clement would make a great child psychologist if he really were an unemployed teacher! This "action/ reaction" if of course a caricature of behaviourism. As such, it warns its most fervent practitioners I guess.
It's a pity, this film could have been great, the topic is important for it to be treated like a (bad) Disney story. It even deals about child abuse in a great small dialogue in the beginning "I expect everything bad about people HERE" is the simple way the prefect/ guard Chabert sums it up. Who also ends up being charmed by Clement, who seems to have a way with everybody.
Kim Anehall in Amazon writes greatly about how sometimes education receives the "rejects" from other professions, makes an intelligent analogy of Clement's "rebellion" to the way the French resistance worked, and describes very well the process it entails for him to win them over. Jeffrey E Ellis' Twain quote in Amazon is great, but could well be called "spoilers" too.
Din't like this whole "racconto" and the fact the adult Pierre is a superstar musician. Found that particularly cheap, "winners only", very American in their worse sense. In he beginning Clement doesn't know how to "stand" in this fiery military-like regime, his body tells it all. Some jokes demand some knowledge of French history, like his reactions to a Vichy song when he "auditions" the boys, or the answer of one kid about Napoleon's death :). The best one belongs to him, of course, when speaking on hell left behind to Rachin. Also towards the same target "I don't think you love many things". Overall, forgettable fable. No wonder it got such accolades and Oscar nomination :)!