Then Penguin Lessons Movie Review

“The Penguin Lessons” is inspired by actual events. The screenplay is written by Jeff Pope, who wrote “Philomena,” which also starred Coogan. ​Knowing his actor was very important in making this whole story work. And it does.

The screenplay is adapted from the book written by Tom Michell’s 2016 memoir. It’s decided by some lovely people Michell meets that the darling penguin can’t go nameless, so he’s called, Juan Salvador. This name comes from the book “Johnathan Livingston Seagull” by Richard Bach. It’s about a seagull who is trying to learn about flying. He looks inward and does some soul-searching about his freedoms. Not much about the book is talked about here, but freedom is, or the loss of freedom that is. The penguin comes into Michell’s life because he saves him from an oil slick and the little guy follows him everywhere, making it impossible to leave him on his own. He does his best, but Juan considers the teacher a member of his family and isn’t going anywhere. This is the beautiful part of the story.

“The Penguin Lessons” gets very political about what happened in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1976. A military coup takes place and life changes overnight. If you said or did what the regime deemed to be against the state, you were snatched off the street and disappeared. It happened to many people, 30,000 are still unaccounted for. Scary times for the country and the smoke signal within the film comes at a time when people in the United States should heed the warnings that films and books spread. This type of message should be heeded. Michell’s new friend warns, “Say goodbye to democracy and freedom and hello to fear, intimidation and brutality.” Left Wingers, activists and unionists are being rounded up. Michell gets much more of Argentine politics than he ever thought he would. Closeups of his face say everything you need to know.   

Steve Coogan (The Trip) plays Michell, a British teacher who thought teaching in Argentina would be easy. Teachers are in short supply, so he’ll be needed and appreciated, right? The boys he’ll be teaching are privileged and spoiled, and he has their number. His dry wit works beautifully while dealing with the education starved young men, the penguin and the headmaster.  The headmaster is played by Jonathan Pryce from “Something Wicked This Way Comes.” He isn’t as into penguins as Michell is, but he doesn’t understand how one can be used to teach youth about tyranny, rank and an emerging dictatorship. The boys all love Juan, but Michell only allows one student to control who pets and feed him. When the boys ask why he simply answers, “Because I’m a dictator.” There are several of these lessons which take your breath away.

Juan sees a white bar of soap, and as he would an egg, sits on it to keep it warm. This and several scenes like it make your heart sing. When Coogan says Juan Salvador, you know he loves him, even though he is trying to pawn him off to a zoo. His cleaner isn’t happy about the idea, but he’s told he can’t keep the little guy, no matter how much he has grown to love him. He begins to use Juan in his lessons, which doesn’t go unnoticed. He tells his students what he really thinks of Byron, Dickens and the lot. Things being as they are in the country; he’s told he must stop with telling the boys certain viewpoints. Michell says he can do what he pleases with his lessons, he gives his opinions because they’re in a free country. This hits hard when he realizes where he is. “Oh, right. It’s not. I forgot.” I don’t want to give away what happens but stay at the end to read an important summary and to see a real clip of Juan in a pool at the school. “Sometimes in life, you gotta put the penguin in the pool.”