52 Films by Women Vol 4. 23. THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER (Director: Sara Colangelo)
Why re-tell a story in another language? You can bring it a
wider audience, revealing its mainstream resonance. You can fashion it into a
vehicle for a talented Hollywood star. You can expand the boundaries of a
national cinema by appropriating a story line from another culture.
Nadav Lapid’s 2014 film, The
Kindergarten Teacher, has not been seen widely outside Israel, its country
of origin, and France outside of the festival circuit. It is well-regarded and
received distribution in Canada and Argentina. Lapid himself has achieved
festival acclaim for his 2019 film, Synonymes, which won
the top prize (the Golden Bear) at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. The
English language audience’s unfamiliarity with the film made it ripe for adaptation
by an American filmmaker. That task fell to writer-director Sara Colangelo,
whose debut film, Little
Accidents, was also first
seen in 2014.
Looking at the trailer for Lapid’s
film, Colangelo’s adaptation appears to follow the plot, even the poetry, very
closely. The story focuses on a five year old boy who appears to be a natural
poet, a young Mozart, as it were, who can recite his own verse spontaneously.
He attracts the attention of his kindergarten teacher, who attempts to
encourage his talent, but also appropriates his work, passing it off as her
own.
The young boy himself is something of a mystery. What
compels him to recite? What do his poetic utterances mean? Is his talent
natural? Does it say something about transcending his background? Does it
suggest that children aren’t moulded by their experiences and upbringing but
have an innate point of view? Can a child be a flower sprouting from a field of
dust?
Colangelo is not interested in these questions. She focuses
instead on the titular character, the kindergarten teacher, here named Lisa
Spinelli and played with wide-eyed, almost naive intensity by Maggie
Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal has been acclaimed in films that are not widely seen
such as Secretary
and Sherrybaby for her
willingness to play roles that offset her apple-cheeked wholesomeness. She
doesn’t want to play the lead in a romantic comedy. As an actress, she is
interested in characters who exhibit unusual, possibly perverse behaviour. This
behaviour isn’t motivated by obtaining the approval of a homogeneous society.
Rather it is an attempt to fulfil a deep need. However, that need isn’t defined
by a trauma. Her characters - the most interesting ones - are not victims. They
pursue their goals with single-minded agency.
It is this quality to her work that places her outside of
the mainstream. She reminds us that there is life outside of a domesticated,
prescribed normality; her characters can show the possibility of a new
equilibrium. In an uncomfortable way – uncomfortable because as viewers we are
socially-conditioned beings – she reminds us that we don’t have to settle for
things that are supposed to make us happy.
I sat through The Kindergarten Teacher mesmerised,
willing Lisa not to behave the way she did. I was utterly invested in her, the
way audience members emotionally connect with soap opera characters. Expressing
disapproval, I was simultaneously compelled by and drawn into Lisa’s choice, as
ruinous as it appears to be. The film presents a problem to which there is no
easy solution.
The film begins, naturally enough, in Lisa’s expansive,
toy-filled classroom, a room designed to give children stimulus. It is the
kindergarten teacher’s job to encourage the potential of the children in their
care; to help them understand the world and to socialise. Kindergarten is a way
station, barely remembered by the children who attend it. I cannot remember who
taught me the words ‘car’ or ‘school’ or when I first said the word ‘cat’,
partly because memories are mainly made when we have some bedrock of knowledge
or understanding. Jimmy (Parker Sevak), the five year old prodigy, literally
surprises Lisa, pacing up and down and reciting his poem, ‘Anna is beautiful /
Beautiful enough for me’. In Lapid’s film, the child recites ‘Hagar is
beautiful / Beautiful enough for me’. Lisa attends a poetry class, but her own
efforts are over-worked. She clusters words together rather than reveals
something; almost if turning the engine vigorously without putting her foot on
the accelerator. Her teacher, Simon (Gael Garcia Bernal) cannot disguise his
apathy. I would categorise his response as profound disappointment, as if Lisa
were a lover faking an orgasm. Having listened to Jimmy’s poetry, Lisa is
compelled to write it down and then, in her class, pass it off as her own.
Suddenly Simon pays attention; she is no longer a woman with delusions of
talent.
Lisa is like an addict wanting another hit. She tries to
stimulate Jimmy’s gift, waking him up during nap time to get him to observe
things. The sense of a taboo being broken is accentuated by Lisa taking Jimmy
to a bathroom; it is an unsuitable place for a young child and an adult to
spend time together. Lisa wants more words for her teacher but also wants to
test the limits of Jimmy’s talent. She wants to him to understand his own
ability and use it to be excellent.
What drives this addiction? Colangelo suggests that Lisa’s
joy of motherhood is reaching a natural end. Her teenage children are making
their own choices. Her son Josh (Sam Jules) wants to join the army. Her
daughter Lainie (Daisy Tahan) has taken up smoking and no longer has an
interest in photography. Her husband Grant (Michael Chernus) reads her work but
encourages without convincing her that his opinion means anything. This doesn’t
lead to a confrontation; Lisa does not demand a different response.
Colangelo is careful not to objectify Jimmy. She mainly
frames him in two shots with Lisa, so Lisa is crouching down next to him. The
effect is for us always to see Jimmy in relation to Lisa’s beatific face, to
feel the weight of her expectation. Lisa is contrasted with Meghan (Anna
Baryshnikov), her classroom assistant. Meghan is literally selfless, but is
also not secure enough to criticise Lisa. It is a surprise to discover that
she, rather than Lisa, is the ‘Anna’ of Jimmy’s poem. What did Lisa do wrong?
Lisa breaks many taboos. She tries to get in touch with
Jimmy’s father (Ajay Naidu), speaking first to Jimmy’s brother. Words run in
the family; Jimmy’s uncle is a proof reader. However, Jimmy’s father regards
him as a failure; he doesn’t want that life for his son. It is more important
for Jimmy to attend baseball practice with a friend than have an opportunity to
recite his poetry in public.
Moreover Lisa implores Becca (Rosa Salazar), the employee
who collects Jimmy from kindergarten, to note down his poetry. She does so, but
without sharing Lisa’s enthusiasm. Lisa reports Becca’s lateness to Jimmy’s
father and gets her fired. She is desperate to take Jimmy to the poetry reading
and pretends that the child is ill.
Simon isn’t exactly a pure character. He kisses Lisa. This
isn’t the response she was hoping for. Her desire isn’t related to sex.
On two occasions, Gyllenhaal is shown partially nude not in
a sexual way but to illustrate that she is secure in her skin, as if clothes
represented the normality to which she has no regard. In the UK, the film was
rated as suitable for children aged twelve and over as if nudity was not a
taboo. It is also as if the film classifiers did not imagine that young
teenagers would watch the film; after all, what’s the appeal?
Where the transposition from Israel to New York is less
successful is in the authority’s response to Lisa’s deception. At no point is
she held to account by a governing body or by the police. She faces instead the
resentment of the other students, when she breaks her assignment to recite
Jimmy’s words and appals Simon when she gives Jimmy to perform his own work.
(‘Is this some sort of joke?’) When Jimmy is transferred to another
kindergarten, Lisa’s transgression is more extreme. Nevertheless, you imagine she
may have been subject to a restraining order or, at least have been fired.
The finale takes place in a hotel room, where Jimmy shows
some agency. The scene is well-written and played as Jimmy calls the police
while Lisa, locked in the bathroom, instructs him what to tell the police. The
final line of the film has a poignancy – ‘I have a poem’ – that makes us
question whether society is evolved enough to receive his gift.
The tragedy of The Kindergarten Teacher (the
remake) is that it ended up on Netflix, where it did not receive the showcase
of a wide US cinema release. Colangelo’s remake did not enter the mainstream.
Gyllenhaal’s commanding performance was not much seen either. Conservative
America also responded with disapproval to the subject matter. It is not hard
to see why. Wealthy Americans trust their children to others so they can pursue
their interests. A film like The Kindergarten Teacher makes them
question this arm’s length approach to parenting.
Reviewed at Cineworld
West India Quay, East London, Saturday 9th March 2019, 17:40
screening
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