Tony Kaye, the controversial director of American History X, returns to movie houses with this emotionally powerful, enlightening drama. Adrien Brody plays a distant, closed-off character, but Brody relies on his natural charisma to draw focus to himself. He carries his pain just below the surface, locked away but still present. He's mesmerizing, especially when facing some kind of conflict.
Mr. Barthes (Brody) works as a substitute teacher in tough New York City schools, willing to take on month-long assignments without getting tied down. Unlike some of his colleagues, his detachment allows him to deal with the cruel students, and to connect with the good ones, without ever getting personally involved. But things change when a teen prostitute, Erica (Sami Gayle), comes onto him. He takes her home to give her something to eat, and she ends up staying. Like everyone else in his life, he tries to cut her loose, but when one of his students tries to commit suicide, he finds that he's really missing something important in his life.
The other characters -- played by an impressive cast including James Caan, Lucy Liu, Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks, and Tim Blake Nelson -- help to provide perspective, as harried, frenzied, damaged, deluded souls. The movie throws in some strange, occasional blackboard animation and amber-colored flashbacks to help set the mood. The story's events may line up a little too neatly to test Brody's character on cue, but the emotional responses are truthful, and the movie's satisfying ending is earned.
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