‘The Penguin Lessons’ review: Sweetness of the usual feather

The distinctive relationship between animals and other people is a territory typically mined for cinematic fodder; the twist in “The Penguin Classes,” based mostly on the 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, is within the exoticism of each the animal and the setting, although the message imparted is certainly acquainted. Tailored for the display by screenwriter Jeff Pope (“Philomena,” “The Misplaced King”) and directed by Peter Cattaneo (“The Full Monty”), the inventive staff behind the movie is effectively versed in presenting offbeat human curiosity tales with humorous and gently efficient messaging — and a distinctly British humorousness.

When Tom (Steve Coogan) arrives in Buenos Aires to show English to the privileged teenage boys at St. George’s School, it’s on the eve of the army coup in 1976, which he takes in stride with a stiff higher lip and wholesome dose of cynicism. We don’t know a lot about him besides that he’s solely fascinated about protecting his head down and out of bother. He doesn’t have a lot curiosity in his pupils, the harrowing political state of affairs and even friendships. On a bus to Uruguay for a weekend jaunt to keep away from the coup, Tom’s forthright Finnish colleague Tapio (Björn Gustafsson) says he likes his new good friend Tom, who sighs, replying, “You do? I don’t.”

It’s on this fateful journey to Punta del Este that Tom’s life begins to alter, after an evening out with a beguiling girl (Micaela Breque). Wandering the seashore at dawn, they uncover an oil slick studded with penguin carcasses. His new acquaintance persuades him to take one of many surviving birds again to his lodge in an try to reserve it, then dashes, leaving him with the now-clean penguin. Attempt as he may to ditch his feathered companion, the penguin is not going to go away him alone, so Tom smuggles the fowl again to Argentina and into his campus house, largely as a result of nobody else desires to cope with a free penguin.

The usual heartwarming and humorous animal story unfolds because the penguin — ultimately named Juan Salvador — forces Tom out of his grumpy, bored existence. The care, feeding and hiding of this creature power him to confide in these round him, like Maria (Vivian El Jaber), the campus cook dinner and cleaner, and her granddaughter Sophia (Alfonsina Carrocio), a radical lefty who urges Tom to take a extra lively function in not simply his politics however as a member of the neighborhood. “I anticipate dangerous individuals to do dangerous issues,” she says. “However when good individuals do nothing, I might punch them within the face.”

Juan Salvador additionally turns into Tom’s manner into bonding together with his unruly college students, wrangling their scattered attentions with the bizarre (and lovely) animal. He finds the inspiration to show them quietly radical poetry, a lot to the chagrin of the varsity’s headmaster (Jonathan Pryce). The little penguin turns into a type of mascot, a really cute creature for them to rally round and a therapist of types.

Juan Salvador forces Tom to attach with others, and thru this, he finds his backbone, supporting his new pals whereas they endure the turbulent and terrifying occasions of Argentina’s army dictatorship. Cattaneo and Pope handle to steadiness the tone of a dramatic historic depiction of fascism with a captivating animal story and their secret weapon is Coogan. His bone-dry supply makes it in order that the bitter is rarely too sharp and the sentimental is rarely too syrupy. Even in moments of deep disappointment, he’ll crack a rueful joke, and when he lets Tom’s vulnerability present, we see the hassle that it takes for this man to stay his neck out.

“The Penguin Classes” is pretty formulaic — it hits the beats you anticipate it to, precisely while you anticipate it to hit them — however it’s a stirring yarn, made all the higher being based mostly on a real story. Fortunately, Cattaneo opted to solid an actual fowl (truly a pair of them). The considered Coogan performing reverse a CGI penguin is chilling.

Maybe we don’t want the reminder that our private relationships with animals are among the most particular and rewarding ones that we are able to take pleasure in as human beings, however “The Penguin Classes” additionally underscores that {our relationships} with persons are much more essential and that typically animals are the most effective stewards for this specific journey. Juan Salvador is actually one of many extra memorable ones.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune Information Service movie critic.