Viola Davis, left, and Maggie Gyllenhaal star in the education drama 'Won't Back Down.' (Photo by Twentieth Century Fox)
Midway through the movie "Won't Back Down," a beleaguered official in the teachers union turns to her boss in exasperated wonder. "When," she asks, "did Norma Rae become the bad guy?"
Maybe it's time that woman read something besides The Nation.
Unions have been growing in infamy in some Americans' eyes for years (even as they've been shrinking in membership). And no group has come under stronger attack than the teachers unions. "Won't Back Down" isn't likely to give them any cover.
Set in Pittsburgh, the film is built around a version of the so-called "trigger law" in which, if a majority of parents agree, a failing school can be taken over, revamped, restaffed or even turned into a charter school.
And, in the movie, single mother Maggie Gyllenhaal and frustrated teacher Viola Davis do just that, wresting a crumbling edifice away from a corrupt principal and a few do-nothing teachers.
The movie already has come under scrutiny from some teachers groups who have called the film slanted. They're right.
In the script, the union boss is a hissable villain, the only truly pro-union teacher a lazy joke, socio-economic factors dismissed and Occupy Wall Street put down as something only complainers who aren't "working two jobs" have time for.It also, by the way, fictionalizes the "trigger law," first adopted in California, as something that teachers have to sign on to, too. In fact, there is no such requirement (although that rewrite allows the script to pretend this is a broad-based, unifying revolt).
So, yes, the movie has a conservative point of view. Just as many, many more Hollywood films -- with their reflexive distrust of big business and dislike of religious orthodoxy -- have a liberal one. Almost every movie, consciously or not, reflects the hopes and assumptions of the people making them.
The real question is, ultimately, are the movies art -- in which there's room for conflicting ideas and three-dimensional characters? Or are they propaganda, in which thoughts are reduced to slogans, and people to a simple image that can be printed on a poster?
And that's where "Won't Back Down" falls short.
Every school board member here is a fat cat; every union official a self-interested sneak; every parent a responsible, salt-of-the-earth, blue-collar worker; every child willing to learn. Real-life factors in education -- such as drugs or crime or abusive homes -- don't count at all.
The supporting characters are all cardboard cut-outs and clich?s; Oscar Isaac, who plays a dedicated teacher (and a rather forced love interest for Gyllenhaal), isn't a man but a type, meant to represent na?ve young idealists who only think they're pro-union.
Davis, who has never put a foot wrong on stage or on screen, invests an awful lot of drama in her thinly drawn character, and Gyllenhaal is almost impossibly charming as the plucky single mom, fighting for respect even as she sees people smirking at her malapropisms and ill-fitting clothes. Even when the details of their lives feel unbelievable, these actresses compel our faith and keep us watching.
And even when the film works too hard to tell us how to feel with overdone music and cartoon characters, there are some powerful moments here, from the images of failing children to those of frustrated parents.
But "Won't Back Down" is propaganda, nonetheless. And while so was "Norma Rae," at least that story was a movie first -- and a call to arms only second.
Note: Newhouse News Service movie critic Stephen Whitty wrote this review.
___________
WON'T BACK DOWN
2 stars, out of 5
Snapshot: A drama, based on real events, about a frustrated teacher and a dedicated parent who join forces to turn around a failing school.
What works: Viola Davis, as always, turns in a strong performance, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, as always, is impossibly charming.
What doesn't: The film's pro-charter, anti-union agenda is, at times, so obvious that the insistently didactic moments only undercut the more interesting dramatic ones.
Starring: Gyllenhaal, Davis, Holly Hunter, Rosie Perez. Director: Daniel Barnz. Rating: PG, for thematic elements and language. Running time: 2 hours. Where: Find New Orleans showtimes.
Source: http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2012/09/wont_back_down_movie_review_ed.html
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