Freedom Writers, written and directed by Richard LaGravenese, holds no surprises. It tells a familiar story: a young, eager teacher enters an urban high school classroom full of poor kids with no futures. She works hard to gain their respect, and eventually brings them together and gives them hope. The film's formula flirts with the clich‚d and at times leans towards melodrama. But its smart screenplay and convincing acting make it feel true and heartfelt for almost the entire movie.
Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) is the inexperienced 23-year-old who begins teaching freshman English at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, CA, a locus of ethnic conflict among blacks, Asians, Latinos and a few whites. The students and their families are poor, and very familiar with gang violence and ethnic warfare. When Gruwell mentions the Holocaust in class, it turns out only one student -- the token white kid - has heard of it. In contrast, when she asks how many of the students have been shot at, almost every student raises his hand.
The classroom scenes, especially the early ones in which the students express disrespect and even hatred for their teacher, introduce believable characters and real social issues. The film truly earns its emotional core, however, when it leaves the classroom and follows both Gruwell and her students home. Gruwell's marriage to Scott (Patrick Dempsey, looking surprisingly less hot off the Grey's Anatomy set) slowly fails, but her tense relationship with her father (Scott Glenn) mends beautifully. By the film's end, one forgives any tendencies it has towards clich‚: the film wholly earns its predictable, but uplifting, ending.
