Directed By Peter Cattaneo

Starring – Steve Coogan, Jonathan Pryce, Bjorn Gustafsson

The Plot – Inspired by the true story of a disillusioned Englishman (Coogan) who went to work in a school in Argentina in 1976. Expecting an easy ride, Tom discovers a divided nation and a class of unteachable students. However, after he rescues a penguin from an oil-slicked beach, his life is turned upside-down.

Rated PG-13 for strong adult language, some sexual references and thematic elements.

THE PENGUIN LESSONS | Official Trailer (2025)

POSITIVES

For a film that centers around the intrusive meeting and surmising budding bromance between man and penguin, the film supplants with it a stirringly compelling allowance of dramatic impact that allows it to tap seamlessly into the darkly terrifying aspects of the established setting, with little of the schmaltzy sentiment that tie so many of these films together under one roof. That’s not to say that “The Penguin Lessons” doesn’t contain saccharine, mostly in the dependency of its tropes that makes the dynamic between Coogan’s character and his new roommate ripe with the kind of familiarity that makes their rocky road ripe with telegraphed predictability, but it’s overcome by the toughly turbulent side to Argentinian politics that uncovers grave urgency and plight within their people, leading to some stirringly somber dramatic moments that not only sneak up on the audience while delivering some devastating developments with its characters, but also helps to elicit an element of consciousness in its message to the audience, to always stand tall and speak up for those in grave circumstances, or live with the lifelong regret of something that you could’ve possibly been the catalyst for change in resolving. This aspect ultimately makes Coogan’s protagonist ripe with complexity, especially in being a self-admitted flawed molder of minds who is caught lying to characters throughout the film on more than one occasion. It’s a refreshing relatability to characterization that grants us insight into the kind of person that he became after a life-altering tragedy of his own, but beyond that gives ample room in opportunity for Coogan to make the role his own, a fact that also makes the movie’s script ripe with the kind of caustically dry wit that we’ve come to expect from movies involving him. While the comedic material admittedly falls a distant second to the meaningfully layered drama that underlines and magnetizes so many of the movie’s most vital sequences, it does provide a cooling off factor for levity that allows the movie the ability to grasp its audience firmly in the depths of its capabilities, as it never gets too darkly disturbing to feel alienating for people who purely seek a feel good story. Coogan’s dead-pan deliveries certainly elicited more than a few laughs to my interpretation, but I was even more surprised at the amount of effectively measured disperses of vulgarity that somehow maintained distance from an audience-limiting R-rating, saving them for the carefully plucked moments that the bizarreness of spotting a penguin in public could instill jaw-dropping awe amongst its characters. In addition to accessibilities of its script and maturing range of Cattaneo’s direction, the film is also aided tremendously by meaningful performances from Steve Coogan and Jonathan Pryce, even if the latter doesn’t receive half of the amount of screen time in the first half of the movie as he did during the second half. Pryce is typically relegated to being the stuffy disciplinarian of this academy, but even in donning such a conventional design, the charms of his candor simply cannot be sustained, and I truly felt that each scene was better when it involved a will-testing conflict between him and Coogan. As for the movie’s lead, Steve’s razor sharp wit for comedic delivery is only surpassed by the tender compassion that he elicits towards the penguin, once he willingly opens his arms and living quarters to him, and what follows feels like the most naturalistic improvisation for the British actor, with a self-defeatist attitude towards his life being taken over that unravels a legitimate evolution between the film’s 105-minute bookends. Even the penguin deserves credibility for continuously stealing away the attention of the audience, with edited-but-executed responses amid occasionally manic energy that made it impossible not to fall in love with him, similar to Coogan’s character.

NEGATIVES

On the list of consequential aspects to my own personal engagement, it takes a bit longer than expected for the events of the established plot to be set in motion, and as a result I found much of the movie’s opening act to be the weakest section of the script, making it feel a bit aimless and even frivolous before our fishy friend makes his first appearance. For my money, if the script was going to take this long to build towards the initial meeting between them, it should’ve at least defined more of the dynamic between some of its human characters, particularly that of the aforementioned tragic underuse of Jonathan Pryce, who feels like a periodic cameo during a first half to the movie that had so little opportunity for him to show off his own distinguished range. Doing so would’ve helped out tremendously not only with the coldly chilling demeanor of this academy’s upper echelon, but beyond that inscribed a deeper significance to the coup d’état that was costing thousands of families the peace and comfort of everyday living, with members essentially disappearing in the blink of an eye. That brings me to my second issue with the script, as its desire to include every aspect of the setting for the time frame sees the aforementioned coup d’état feeling a bit underdeveloped, particularly in the motivation for the cruel and unusual punishment towards Argentinians, which definitely could’ve used more emphasis towards articulating, even if that means utilizing one of those cliche’d opening sequences involving on-screen text or stock footage to immerse audiences into a particular place in time. Considering the movie begins abruptly with its opening credits, without a single studio emblem that I can at least currently remember, it’s tough to get a grasp on what’s transpiring, especially considering I know so little about the events plaguing the country at the time, and with so little expanding development between the trauma of its people and the tragic injustices of those executing them, it left my yearning for more sociology to the script left mostly unfulfilled, serving what I found the single most compelling aspect of the script to be underwhelmingly bland and essentially only consequential whenever they were needed to shake up discourse to the lives of some of the film’s supporting characters. Finally, as can be expected with a movie that simultaneously features both a cheery penguin and lawless injustices, the film is subjected to sporadically abrupt tonal shifts so forcefully confrontational that they often make the events in the film feel like they’re being pulled from two completely different films, particularly when one scene will involve children playing with the penguin, and in the next someone is getting kidnapped and shoved into a car to possibly never be seen again. It’s not the first time that a movie has involved such polar opposite directions to its material, but it does make me wish the script took more time to gently smooth out those transitions from one extreme to the next, as they had my investment feeling a bit tediously taxing by the forceful shifts that they ask audiences to casually go along with.

OVERALL
“The Penguin Lessons” is anything other than the cutesy family flick that you were expecting, instead opting for a consciously responsible take towards Argentinian injustice that sees a penguin serving as the means to change for one emotionally reeling schoolteacher. While the film feels a bit fishy between abrupt tonal shifts and meaningfully layered performances from Steve Coogan and Jonathan Pryce, it’s never the less an endearing examination of awareness and empathy that feels just as culturally relevant today in America as it did for Argentina in 1976, waddling out a charmingly endearing engagement perfect for a dreary Sunday.

My Grade: 7.1 or B-