Why this has so many Oscar nominations is beyond me. Admittedly it’s a poor year, although the winner will be a good one. This will not be that winner.
Paul Giamatti dials in his performance as a grumpy (actually not THAT grumpy) teacher of Greek History in a second rank American private school.
He has to look after a bunch of kids during the Christmas/New Year holidays alongside the school cook.
Most of the kids f*ck off and he’s left with one sensitive sixth former (looking suspiciously older) and, of course, they all bond.
It’s such a movie of tropes that I found it tiresome from the get go and entirely predictable.
Nothing is BAD about this movie, but nothing is good either. A Beautiful Mind and Dead Poets Society are both better exemplars of the genre and I didn’t especially love either of them really.
If movies by numbers is your thing then this is your movie.
gibberish 