{"id":11433,"date":"2025-04-09T07:50:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T11:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11433"},"modified":"2026-01-04T13:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:15:26","slug":"weekend-movie-pick-the-penguin-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11433","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Movie Pick: The Penguin Lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Although dramatic actors often have trouble with comedy, it\u2019s remarkable how comic actors can do such wonderful jobs with dramatic roles. Think Robin Williams, Steve Carell, Melissa McCarthy. Maybe it\u2019s their timing, or how comfortable they are being \u201call in,\u201d or how carefully they listen and react, I don\u2019t know. But the chance to see (mostly) comedian Steve Coogan in a straight role was irresistible. You may remember him from his pairing with Rob Bryden in the hilarious \u201cThe Trip\u201d series and the lovely The Lost King<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Penguin Lessons<\/em> was directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Magpie Murders<\/em>), and written by Jeff Pope and Tom Michell, based on the book by Michell<\/a> (see the trailer here<\/a>). The story recounts Michell\u2019s experience working as an English professor at an upscale boys\u2019 school in Argentina during the harrowing time of the military overthrow and all the \u201cdisappearances\u201d of protestors (some 30,000 of whom<\/a> were never returned to their families, dead or alive). The school, run by a rigid head master (Jonathan Pryce) has a strict \u201cno pets\u201d policy, so when Michell finds himself in possession of a penguin, he has to hide it. But the penguin turns out to be exactly the catalyst that helps everyone to become their better selves\u2014better students, better teachers, better family. When the granddaughter of the school\u2019s housekeeper is kidnapped by the military, the stakes become serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plot isn\u2019t groundbreaking, but it is very soothing and never becomes sappy, as such films so often do. The performances of Coogan and the housekeeper (Vivian El Jaber) feel absolutely real. Bj\u00f6rn Gustafsson is a clueless science professor. The penguin is charming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you need a break from the news of the day, this is a good one! And, it appears, audiences agree. In case it isn\u2019t showing in your area, I think you can see the whole movie here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics\u2019 rating: 84%; audiences: 94%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although dramatic actors often have trouble with comedy, it\u2019s remarkable how comic actors can do such wonderful jobs with dramatic roles. Think Robin Williams, Steve Carell, Melissa McCarthy. Maybe it\u2019s their timing, or how comfortable they are being \u201call in,\u201d … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[269,272,366,57,104],"tags":[1675,2279,2280],"class_list":["post-11433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actor","category-comedy","category-drama","category-movies","category-the-morgue","tag-argentina","tag-steve-coogan","tag-the-penguin-lessons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2Yp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11435,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11433\/revisions\/11435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}