While I’ve almost always had respect for my teachers growing up, looking back, I’m sure some of them were either alcoholics or people miserable with life. I’m sure at least the pay was good. We did have a couple of them snap on the class more than once, but nothing compared to how Mr. Gale deals with delinquents in Ruth Platt’s first film, The Lesson. The film made its world premiere at this past year’s FrightFest, and will make its North American début at this year’s Slamdance. Taking corporal punishment to the extreme, it’s another torture porn fest, but is it warranted?
Fin (Evan Bendall) is your typical delinquent. Fin would rather be out with his friends causing havoc than being in school. It doesn’t help that Fin is still haunted by the memories of his abusive father and deceased mother. It also doesn’t help that he’s living with his abusive older brother, Jake (Tom Cox), and Jake’s girlfriend, Mia (Michaela Prchalová). Nevertheless, school is the last thing on Fin’s mind, much to the disappointment of his English teacher, Mr. Gale (Robert Hands). After being pushed by his apathetic class one too many times, Mr. Gale has had enough. During a night of drinking and petty vandalism, Fin and his best friend, Joel (Rory Coltart), are attacked and kidnapped by Mr. Gale, intent on teaching the two the value of education.
Having experience not only as an actress, but also being educated in English Literature at University College in Oxford, Platt knows a thing or two about writing. As such, the film starts off slow in order to establish the characters and their backgrounds, but picks up once Fin and Joel get hammered (literally). There are some nice touches, such as Fin’s black-and-white flashbacks of his younger days with his mother and father that evoke sympathy for Fin. This of course breaks that one-dimensional character view that would’ve otherwise been remedied by having the character tortured mercilessly for sympathy. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly, given Platt’s education background), I found a bit of social commentary with The Lesson with regards to delinquency, and what it most likely stems from is the lack of a loving and nurturing home. Sure, one could also glean the message about how teachers face difficulties in the classroom, but there’s more to that. Thankfully, Platt recognizes this and goes deeper with the cause-and-effect nature of the problem.
Platt’s background also enabled her to get the most out of her actors. Hands is appropriately intimidating as the overworked and stressed-out Mr. Gale, and the way he imparts his “lesson” to our two protagonists is brutal and frightening. Then again, it’s especially brutal when you’re on the receiving end of a nailgun. Bendall hits all the right notes as the prickish and quick-witted Fin, getting across the flawed protagonist that makes sympathy for the character much easier to believe. Prchalová also deserves praise for her role as Fin’s surrogate mother. Prchalová effectively shows her care for Fin, and deftly contrasts Cox as Fin’s jerk of a brother.
Negatives against the film are minor. There are moments where the acting takes a dip in quality, or actors stumble in their delivery. The gore is appropriately harsh, but it still amounts to torture porn, which will still divide viewers. Also, the film is almost undermined by the progressively insane Mr. Gale, who ends up using education as a form of torture in addition to his previously-existing instruments of torture. If the film’s commentary is about the difficulties teachers face, and the means of being educated sets one free, perhaps making education a tool of torture for our protagonists isn’t the way to go.
Once the bell rang, The Lesson largely proves itself to be a clever indie thriller. Platt’s writing and direction are deftly executed, and the acting by all the players is more than competent. While the torture porn aspect will be met with derision and ultimately dissuade some from seeing the film, it does fit in with the extreme methods used to get through to our protagonists. Certainly smarter than some of its ilk, The Lesson is a worthy début for its director.