The Penguin Lessons: Steve Coogan stars in lovable crowd pleaser
Cinema has an inexplicable fascination with Penguins. From award-winning docs like March Of The Penguins to animation like Happy Feet, there’s something about these flightless birds that sells a movie as well as any A-lister. New drama The Penguin Lessons will certainly hope that continues to be the case, as it pairs Steve Coogan with an adorable companion.
The comedian plays teacher Tom Michell, a jaded teacher who has left England in the 1970s for a post at a boarding school in Argentina. During a mid-semester break in Paraguay, he rescues a penguin from an oil spill, who attaches himself to his reluctant saviour. Becoming a beloved part of Michell’s life and work after smuggling the penguin back to Argentina, the feathered friend inspires the teacher to care for humanity when a violent revolution takes place.
Sold almost entirely on the odd-couple friendship of Coogan and a cutesy bird, there is a tonal imbalance that the film never really overcomes. Director Peter Cattaneo broke with 1997’s The Full Monty, which similarly put bleak politics next to comedy, but the scale of the political part of the story forces the film to gloss over its impact, providing serious breaks between the lighter moments rather than exploring anything of that conflict.
Holding the film up is Coogan, who is delightfully dry as the curmudgeonly middle-aged man who, to his own admission, doesn’t like people much. His unimpressed stare cuts through the treacle more than once, and makes for a rewarding journey as his new caretaker role teaches him compassion. Elsewhere, veteran thespian Jonathan Pryce hams it up as the headmaster of the school, providing a stiff upper lip and some mandatory exposition.
The Penguin Lessons is always hampered by the feeling that a much more important story is being told in the background, but strong performances and no shortage of adorable penguin antics make it a forgivable crowd pleaser.
The Penguin Lessons is in cinemas from 18th April.