Monsieur Lazhar

Monsieur Lazhar is a film about immigration, communication, and education. I'm starting to hit the wall about writing these reviews because I'm so worn out, but that doesn't mean that I didn't like the films. It just means that I think that the TIFF write-up and any other reviews that you can find on the internet can do a much better job than I can in this current state. So I think I'm going to skip the synopsis part of my write-ups and see what I can fit in to a short one-liner.
Anyway, The one word that I would use to describe this film is subtle. I does touch upon some interesting issues, but either I'm too dense to get what they were trying to say or maybe they just didn't make as big a deal out of the issues as they could have. I would have like more of the issues front and center and flushed out a bit more. Basically, I the film finished and I was expecting more. It was nice, but I think that there was so much more potential there.
This film was by the same director as the film that I watched (and loved) a couple years ago, C'est pas moi, je le jure!. There are definite similarities between the films. Children who really capture the audience, some tough issues and quirky characters and somehow an Amelie-esque feel to the film. I wonder if I say that about all films that are in French. But something about the simple nature of the films, and the style of the dialogue reminds me of Amelie. And the cadence of the speech...which, yeah, I guess could be just the fact that it's in French.
There was a Q&A with this film, but I didn't really get much out of it. The director, Philippe Falardeau, once again shared how he worked with children on-set, he answered questions with humour and even imbedded humour in a scripted pre-screening introduction with one of the children from the film. The young boy was great int he film, but I thought the young girl (who wasn't at the screening) was superb. I would have liked to hear her talk about her experiences.
So in the end, although the synopsis caught my eye and of course the fact that it related to teaching, schools and education, it wasn't the portrayal of the story that really made me enjoy the film. It was good, but as I previously said, I thought it could have done more. But I think this is a personal preference thing. People all around me loved the film and the audience gave the team that was at the Q&A a warm round of applause. So yeah, the real reason this film is great is the cast. I thought each member of the cast did a wonderful job in their role and their emotions, interactions and delivery of their lines really made me enjoy the film.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff.net