Freedom Writers

I rolled my eyes the first time I saw the preview for Freedom Writers, the new movie starring Hilary Swank.
This is just a retread of Dangerous Minds, which starred Michelle Pfieffer and featured that song by Coolio that jacked a sample from Stevie Wonder, I thought. Oh, god, must we once again see another movie about some white saint of a teacher who goes into the inner-city and saves all the poor black, Latino and Asian kids.
But this movie, though predictable, does manage to avoid many of the cliches and add some freshness to a tired concept.
The film takes place just after the L.A. riots in the 1990s. Swank is Erin Gruwell, an idealistic young teacher just starting out. She is put in charge of one of the roughest group of students at the school. On her first day, she's dressed in a red dress with pearls, a look that doesn't impress the students.
Time, however, changes everything, and soon, she fully engages the students by making them write journals about their experiences.
Through the journals, we hear the students' voices. We get to know them beyond the simple stereotypes often thrashed about in such movies. They become fully-realized human beings.
That gives the movie depth. Not much depth but some is better than nothing.
And that depth helps propel the movie through the predictability that still creeps in, the will-she-leave-or-won't-she-leave theatrics in the last half of the movie.
April Lee Hernandez, who plays Eva, gives a heart-wrenching performance as a student in a gang who must make a choice, one that may alienate her from her family. She alone makes the movie worth watching.
Swank thankfully portrays Erin as a complex human being. Her incredible dedication to her students hurts her marriage. She has a wonderful scene with Patrick Dempsy (otherwise known as Dr. McDreamy) as her husband. It feels real and raw and helps cut away all the saintliness of Swank's character.
So yes, this is like Dangerous Minds, but in so many ways, it isn't.