Movie Review: "Monsieur Lazhar"

"Monsieur Lazhar": A-.  This is a touching movie about a middle aged man, Bachir Lazhar, who convinces a Montreal school principal to hire him to replace a young teacher, Martine, who hanged herself in her own classroom. Her body is discovered by Simon, a student in her class who she probably knew would most likely be the first into her room and who was the kid who gave her the most trouble. In many ways Lazhar is the opposite of the departed Martine. Initially he is more about having the kids toe the mark than he is about interaction, creativity and spontaneity. For example, rather than using curriculum-approved books for teaching grammar and composition, he has the kids working with excerpts from Balzac. He instructs them to rearrange their desks into straight lines. He mildly disciplines a misbehaving student by tapping him on the back of the head, then later learns any physical contact whatsoever with the students is taboo. He has a tough assignment, as would any mid-year replacement teacher, because the children thought highly of Martine and may be traumatized by her suicide. He is not supposed to interfere with the psychiatrist hired by the school to help the kids through this tough period, but he puts in his two cents anyway from time to time.

Lazhar is new to the city, having fled his native Algeria. He keeps his past close to the vest, but in scenes outside of school we learn that he is having difficulty convincing an immigration panel that he should be granted asylum in Canada to avoid deportation back to his homeland. He manages to keep these personal problems from his students and his colleagues. One of those colleagues is Claire, who invites Lazhar to her home for dinner. She inspires him to try different approaches toward becoming a more effective teacher.

The students in Lazhar's class provide some of the humor for the story, a counterbalance to the sometimes stoic Lazhar. The kids are pretty savvy for middle schoolers. They are not afraid to challenge some of Lazhar's methods, but he deftly keeps things under control. His rapport with his charges improves little by little as the weeks roll by. Teacher's pet is the very pretty Alice (Sophie Nelisse), one of Simon's close friends who has conversations with her teacher almost as if they were peers. These conversations reminded me of the teacher-student relationship in "To Sir With Love," one of my favorite movies of all time.

I subscribe to the notion that great teachers are born with that talent. Taking education classes and going through training only gets you so far. Like other great teachers in real life, Monsieu Lazhar is a natural. Although he is a little stiff at first, he acclimates to the job. He has the best interests of the kids foremost in his mind, and they are astute enough to sense it. He does not look at his days in the classroom as a chore; instead it is a vocation to which he has been called. Even though he was hired by a desperate principal as a matter of expediency - - he applied for the position before anyone else did, and the kids needed a teacher - - he is the right man to take on the challenge presented by the dire circumstances.

The tension level in the movie is, in all honesty, a little too low. Will Lazhar succeed in his proceedings with the immigration officials? Will he be able to get his students over the hump of the traumatic event they experienced? Will his budding relationship with Claire go anywhere? While these story lines are present, they do not have us biting our nails. Still, watching this movie brought back some great personal memories for me of the best job I ever had, teaching. If you are or were a teacher, or if you have ever been lucky enough to be taught by a natural such as Lazhar, this movie is one you will enjoy.