The Penguin Lessons
Steve Coogan plays a sardonic English teacher in 1970s’ Buenos Aires where he befriends a most unlikely companion.
Teacher’s pet: Juan Salvador and Steve Coogan
Image courtesy of Lionsgate UK.
Steve Coogan embodies a very particular brand of Englishman. Tom Michell thinks of himself as an Ernest Hemingway type, except without the money or any books to his name. He is, though, learned in the ways of literature, is a bitter man, sarcastic and, in the hands of Steve Coogan, a natural comic (Coogan just can’t help himself). Steve Coogan has carved a niche for himself by appearing in humorous, small-scale, quintessentially British films based on extraordinary true stories.
Here, the year is 1976 when Michell’s taxi pulls up at the gates of St George’s, a boarding school for the children of affluent Argentinean families. The principal, Buckle (Jonathan Pryce), informs Michell (and us) that Argentina is in turmoil, the economy is in freefall and that “a military coup is imminent.” Buckle also warns the new English teacher that punctuality is everything and that loud music, smoking and pets are strictly forbidden.
When a coup does, indeed, take place, the students are sent home and the teachers are given a week off, when Michell opts to visit Uruguay due to his mild interest in that country’s architecture and museums. With the school’s annoyingly chatty physics teacher in tow, Michell visits a nightclub where he manages to pick up the prettiest woman on the dance floor (Mica Breque). Afterwards, during a romantic stroll on the beach, they discover the remnants of an oil spill, where a penguin is fighting for its life. If only to impress his date, Michell agrees to carry the bird back to his hotel room for a clean-up and after she leaves he is stuck with the thing. Various attempts to return the penguin back to the sea backfire, and Michell finds himself smuggling the creature back to his college…
The title of the film, and the poster that goes with it, suggests a different kind of experience from what we get. Being “inspired by real events,” and being scripted by Jeff Pope – who garnered an Oscar nomination for co-scripting the true-life Philomena with Steve Coogan – there is more to this than meets the eye. Jeff Pope does not shy away from the more sinister aspects of Michell’s story (encapsulated in the teacher’s memoir), so the film is part character study and even part political thriller. But Pope does know his audience, and with a deft touch he has conjured up an amusing, poignant and enlightening tale that should appeal to a wide cross section of the public. I should warn readers though that at the screening I attended, one teenage girl appeared to be inconsolable by the film’s end, although the older members of the audience had been content to chuckle along with Coogan’s wry bon mots. The Penguin Lessons is very funny, even by Steve Coogan standards, and is a beautifully mounted entertainment from Peter Cattaneo, still best remembered for directing The Full Monty (1997) all those years ago.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Steve Coogan, Vivian El Jaber, Björn Gustafsson, Jonathan Pryce, David Herrero, Alfonsina Carrocio, Aimar Miranda, Mica Breque, Hugo Fuertes, Tomás Pozzi, Ramiro Blas, Ana Carolina Parisi.
Dir Peter Cattaneo, Pro Rory Aitken, Adrián Guerra, Andrew Noble, Ben Pugh and Robert Walak, Ex Pro Peter Cattaneo, Jeff Pope, Steve Coogan, Josh Varney, Joshua Horsfield, Richard Mansell, Orlando Wood, Tom Michell, Nia Vazirani, Thorsten Schumacher, Claire Taylor, Elizabeth Kormanova, Emma Berkofsky and Marie-Claire Benson, Screenplay Jeff Pope, Ph Xavi Giménez, Pro Des Isona Rigau, Ed Robin Peters and Tariq Anwar, Music Federico Jusid, Costumes Alberto Valcárcel and Gresham Blake, Sound Oriol Tarragó.
Intake Films/Rolling Dice/42/Nostromo Pictures/Aperture Media Partners-Lionsgate UK.
111 mins. USA/UK/Spain/Ireland. 2024. US Rel: 28 March 2025. UK Rel: 18 April 2025. Cert. 12A.
