The Kindergarten Teacher (2019)

Rating: 4/10
Genre: Drama
Related Titles: Gifted, 
By Leanne Harragan

A teacher finds great potential in her 5-year-old pupil so she goes above and beyond to protect his abilities.

The Kindergarten Teacher is definitely one of those films where the meaning kind of went over my head, I mean I understand what was going on and that there was a definite commentary about talent and parenting, but at the same time I kind of didn't really see the point of it all. 

To begin with I'd say that Maggie Gyllenhaal is fantastic, her character development is amazing. In the beginning, she seems to be your normal everyday kindergarten teacher with a happy family and a somewhat unsuccessful hobby of writing poetry. Her life suddenly changes when a boy in her kindergarten class comes up with a poem, this leads her life to take a turn and suddenly cracks start appearing everywhere and her desire to nurture and protect his potential turns into an obsession. As the obsession grows Gyllenhall becomes more frantic and reckless in all areas of her life. 

The obsession to nurture this potential seems to stem from a good place, Lisa (Gyllenhaal) wants to protect this rare talent, especially since the prodigy she has spotted comes from a family that don't especially care about this talent and don't have much time for him, leaving him with babysitters when not at school. In trying to nurture these abilities the line between caring and manipulation are blurred - with the boundaries between what's acceptable and unacceptable for a teacher really being pushed. It's uncomfortable viewing to say the least, with her phoning the 5 year old when he's out of school, to the eventual kidnapping of the child. 

There's really not much else to this film, it's literally all about the blurred lines of this teacher in her attempt to nurture this talent. It takes a weird turn in the middle as she begins an affair with her poetry teacher which is never mentioned again, her family problems are introduced and just as quickly forgotten again and the ending just sort of creeps up. It's all a bit strange and probably not something I'd recommend as it doesn't really go anywhere. Kudos to Gyllenhaal for her strong performance though.