Review of Freedom Writers (2007) by Foreverfeelinmt — 15 Nov 2017

This film had things going for itself but, it had issues that it could've perfected on. For example, a major flaw with the casting of the students was that they looked twice the age of a regular high school Freshman.

Despite the fact that this might irritate some moviegoers, it didn’t get under my skin that much since it seems like this is one of the more common flaws in most present day “coming of age” movies, and I was somewhat expecting that going into this film.

Most of the scenes are shot in a pretty generic way, with tons of quick cuts that almost interrupted scenes. In a scene of one of Eva’s (April L. Hernandez) outbursts, she is seen kicking what appears to be tin on the ground and the scene in general was a bit silly.

Also, the editor cut out part of the scene too quickly and it just didn’t flow. Although, I would consider the scene when the movie depicts the upbringing and backgrounds of the troubled students while Mrs.

Gruwell is reading their journal entries, to be one of the more effective parts of Freedom Writers. This is because the inclusion of master shots during the scenes represented the more short and traumatic events all in one setting, and the long takes depicting the more lengthy events taken place while walking around on the streets.

In my opinion, Freedom Writers should've utilized more of a variety of different shots to make the film visually more interesting. The directing and dialogue in the scenes between Mrs. Gruwell and the students are the strongest, especially when she mentions the analogy comparing gangs to the Holocaust.

* I would regard this scene to also be the most realistic since I can picture even regular students getting heated with the teacher if they bring up a sensitive topic (gangs) and speak about it as if it was something they have personally experienced enough to know the emotion and impact attached to it.

In addition, this scene also indicates to the audience how uneducated theses groups of students are, once its revealed that they didn’t even know what the Holocaust was. However my main issue with the film is that it exaggerates the antagonists too much, making them more one dimensional.

Of course the first person that others would assume I’m referring is Margaret Campbell (aka Professor Umbridge). Even though she has been type casted in the same kind of role since Harry Potter, it is definitely for a purpose since she acts in that malevolent role very well.

Both Mr. Gelford’s (John Benjamin Hickey) and Scott Casey’s (Patrick Dempsey) scenes in particular were super contrived in terms of trying to make them unlikeable characters. A scene I would say sums up how Mr.

Gelford is portrayed is when Mrs. Gruwell meets up with the Board of Education and at one point, responds with something along the lines of, “You really think I care about the students?” No one in that scene even commented on the inappropriate statement he made and he was still perceived as being one of the more reputable and normal teachers in that district.

Speaking from the perspective of someone who has a parent that works at the school, I would think that making absurd and unprofessional comments like that around the Board of Education would get someone into some trouble.

Dempsey’s scenes are even more unconvincing since they shift from him expressing how dissatisfied with their distant relationship to him forgiving her and being all affectionate with her too quickly.

These scenes would’ve been better if they just executed the first two scenes with him in a way that made it seem like they were a normal couple with no issues and then slowly add tension. Another issue I had with Freedom Writers was the portrayal of Ben Daniel’s (Hunter Parish).

I felt in the beginning of the film, that he would be a prominent character but they just squeezed in his character’s backstory during the most random scene. Despite the drawbacks I just mentioned and the occasional cheese, Freedom Writers is an uplifting movie that I would rate higher than Stand and Deliver (the super dated original version) but lower than Dead Poet’s Society since that move is better in all aspects.

So, a fair score for this movie would be a 3 out of 5.