A curmudgeonly teacher finds a renewed zest for life after rescuing a penguin in this new film from 'The Full Monty' helmer Peter Cattaneo.
features both. Well, at least one penguin, who goes by the name Juan Salvador. But he’s more than enough. He’s Coogan’s best onscreen partner since Rob Brydon in theLoosely based on a memoir by Tom Michell, the film takes place in 1976 in Buenos Aires, where teacher Tom arrives to teach English to teenage students at a tony private school.
His timing wasn’t exactly fortuitous, as not long after he gets there the country is rocked by a military coup, with people disappearing subsequently.Not that any of the tumult affects Tom, who soon embarks on a weekend getaway to Uruguay with his Swedish colleague , where he enjoys a flirtation with a local woman. Walking together on the beach, they encounter an oil slick and the bodies of several dead penguins. One, however, is still alive. Tom is eager to move on. “There’s nothing we can do,” he says with mock solemnity. “You can’t interfere with nature.” But she implores him to help, and Tom, trying to impress her, agrees to take the penguin back to his hotel room and clean him up. Not only does this attempt at seduction not work, but Tom finds himself stuck with a penguin that won’t leave him, even after he throws him back into the ocean. In one of the film’s many implausibilities that you just have to go with, he smuggles the bird to Argentina and hides him in his on-campus apartment to avoid the watchful eyes of the school’s officious headmaster , working hard to procure fish to feed him and even bringing him to the classroom as a teaching aide. Which naturally does wonders for his bored students, who take a renewed interest in their lessons. And for Tom himself, who previously snuck off for naps during classes but now finds himself teaching with fresh vigor.makes it look like a cutesy comedy, something that might have easily been called “The Dead Penguin’s Society.” The film is that, to a large degree. But it also attempts something more ambitious with a major plot element involving the disappearance of Sofia , the granddaughter of school housekeeper Maria , seized off the street by government figures right in front of Tom, who’s too terrified to intervene. We eventually learn the reason for Tom’s hard-boiled indifference, involving a tragic incident from his past. With his appreciation for life newly restored by his feathered friend, he soon finds himself in the unlikely position of political activist, using Juan Salvador to strike up a conversation with one of the men who took Sofia and winding up spending a night in jail, beaten up for his troubles. The film doesn’t fully succeed in blending its disparate tones, but under the careful direction of Peter Cattaneo , it emerges as an engaging delight from start to finish. That’s partially thanks to the canny screenplay by frequent Coogan collaborator Jeff Pope and partially, no make that majorly, to the superb performance by Coogan, whose expert deadpan comic timing and delivery make the film laugh-out-loud funny at times.also proves unexpectedly moving, its emotional manipulations fully forgivable. By the time it ends with home-movie footage of the real-life Juan Salvador happily swimming in the school’s pool, you’ll have fully succumbed to its charms.Producers: Ben Pugh, Rory Aitken, Andy Noble, Adrian Guerra, Robert Walak Executive producers: Peter Cattaneo, Jeff Pope, Steve Coogan, Josh Varney, Joshua Horsfield, Richard Mansell, Orlando Wood, Tom Michell, Nia Vazirani, Thorstein Schumacher, Claire Taylor, Elizabeth Kormanova, Emma Berkofsky, Marie-Claire BensonAlisa Rendor The Best Dyson Airwrap Alternatives On Sale at Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, From the Star-Loved Drybar Brush to Our Fave T3 Multi-StylerCollagen Masks Are Going Viral for the Promise of Glass Skin — and They’re Discounted for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the GoogleThe Hollywood Reporter is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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