Detachment (Tony Kaye, 2011)

There may or may not be only seven stories in the world. In any case, in Hollywood the one of the inspirational teacher who arrives to put a class of dysfunctional inner-city kids on the straight and narrow is one of the three biggies alongside the maverick cop out for vengeance and the tense courtroom drama. When it becomes apparent that this is not in fact following the blueprint and that there will be no triumphalist finale, a feeling of relief bubbles up, which is soon however tempered by Adrien Brody's depressed educator's portentous voiceover musings, raising a worry that we're headed for pseudland, where depression and bleakness will be taken as synonymous with depth. This is indeed where the film goes at regular intervals, as guilty of adolescent wallowing in hopelessness as the teachers at the end of their tethers accuse their pupils of. This means that some genuinely emotive scenes and even a few witty ones are rather suffocated, and it's a pity that the director seems to think that the only safe alternative to the backslapping winning-against-all-odds story is one of nihilistic despair.

5/10