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Tuesday, 23 January 2007 16:43 |
By ANNA LEE
With its brutal and immediate intensity, "Freedom Writers" shines with an honesty all too often absent in teen-oriented movies ÇƒÓ offering at the same time a warmth that will strengthen the filmës appeal to older generations.
For the most part, the MTV Films production delivers on the promise of being a down-to-earth and raw-edged depiction of todayës high school environment, taking much of its dialogue from the diary entries of real students.
However, "Freedom Writers" is unable to capture the full scope of their experience, focusing instead on an adult lead character, Erin Gruwell, played by Hillary Swank ("The Black Dahlia").
 Swank,
who is also the filmës executive producer, lands in the spotlight on
the merits of her star power. The real star, though, is little-known
actress April Lee Gonzalez in the role of Eva.
Viewers may
recognize Gonzalez as the waitress from "Six Degrees" or as Nurse Inez
from televisionës "ER." She creates with Eva a truly relatable teenage
character, tough but sympathetic, whose narration brings the viewer
into a world of poverty, juvenile crime and gang activity. An opening
scene shows a much younger Eva witnessing a horrific act of violence.
"It was the
first day of school and I was waiting for the bus," she says. As a man
is shot across the street from where sheës standing, the voiceover
continues, "That was the first time I witnessed the war."
The characterës
transition to high school in the next scene sets the stage for more
colorful and often grim details of her experience to emerge. Eva
describes the four distinct groups that form the social fabric of her
neighborhood as "Little Cambodia," "The Ghetto," "Wonderbreadland" and
"South of the Border" ÇƒÓ the category into which she falls.
Since the film
gets so much vigor from its retelling of actual incidents in the lives
of students like Eva, Swank does a real disservice to the story by
opting to have her Mrs. Gruwell character fulfill such a central role.
The film lingers
unnecessarily on the dreary details of Gruwellës failing marriage. The
effectiveness of detailing a husbandës sexual frustration or resentment
of take-out Chinese food in what intents to be a youth-oriented story
is questionable.
What remains
ultimately impressive about "Freedom Writers," though, is how well a
book written by high school students translates into a Hollywood movie.
The dialogue
taken from scenes the students witnessed proves to be far sharper than
in other scenes written by the screenwriters.
The film is an
overall success in what is typically a very shallow genre ÇƒÓ achieving a
level of truth that puts it at least on par with "Dangerous Minds"
(1995) and "Stand and Deliver" (1988). The direct narration and use of
diary-dialogue arguably place it over the top, as does its more
relevant and sure-to-be-successful soundtrack.
A true
accomplisment of "Freedom Writers" is its accessibility outside the
MTV-generation. The aforementioned soundtrack might be too modern for
Mom, but the heart-warming moments found as these youngsters struggle
to survive will be right up her alley.
ï
Anna Lee attends UNC Asheville.
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