The Kindergarten Teacher (2018)

With a boring title like The Kindergarten Teacher and a dull poster with just the image of the main character, and a young boy, the immediate expectation would be low. However, the movie did get the attention of the prestigious Sundance Film Festival last year, winning for its director, Sara Colangelo the Directing Award as well as a nomination for the festival's biggest award, the Grand Jury Prize. Thanks to that, the movie had the opportunity to get a Netflix and worldwide release helping to reach a wider audience to appreciate it. It should also be worth noting here that this movie is actually a remake of a supposedly acclaimed Israeli film of the same name. As I have not seen the original I am not able to compare and judge which is better.

What I can attest to here is that this film is a gem. Maggie Gyllenhaal rarely acts these days but when she does one can almost be assured of a polished performance. Here she takes on the lead role as the titled character whose obsession with one of her students whom she believed is a sort of child poet genius, takes on an increasingly dangerous path. The energy and motivation she achieve from interacting with this child is in stark contrast to the mundane and dysfunctional family she returns to. This is not a typical Hollywood movie character and definitely one that is interesting and unpredictable. Maggie Gyllenhaal handles this tough role beautifully as she commands the movie, appearing in almost every scene. Is she being kind, or merely selfishly exploiting the kid to satisfy her own inabilities, or is she just sick in the head? Is the kid truly a child prodigy and were the kindergarten teacher's action justified? There are no easy answers here, and the best kind of movies are such where the viewer is subjected to view without prejudice and form their own opinion.