Steve Coogan is in beak form in ‘Penguin Lessons’
When Steve Coogan achieves success with a collaborator, once is never enough. Take his quartet of “Trip” movies with Rob Brydon, for example. Or his affiliations with screenwriter Jeff Pope on the modest fact-based hits, “Philomena,” “The Lost King” and “Stan & Ollie.” And let us not forget his creative partnership with Armando Iannucci on “I’m Alan Partridge,” an overseas smash in theaters and on telly.
In keeping with that old proverb “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” comes “The Penguin Lessons,” a project that enables Coogan to blend his dry, sarcastic wit from the “Trip” films with elements of Partridge’s lack of self-awareness and a generous dash of the understated sentimentality characteristic of his Pope alliance. One can only imagine the glee Coogan must have experienced not having to stray far from his comfort zone.
It’s not a stretch to say his rendition of real-life English teacher Tom Michell doesn’t require much of a stretch. Coogan has this type of big-hearted malcontent down pat. What’s different is that this time, his co-star isn’t a Brydon or a Judi Dench (“Philomena”) or even a John C. Reilly (“Stan & Ollie”), it’s an adorable Magellanic penguin. To his credit, Coogan defies WC Fields’ advice to never work with children and animals by happily ceding the limelight to his tuxedoed co-star.
Good thing, too, because if we weren’t so busy falling in love with the avian we come to know as Juan Salvador (the Spanish translation of “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”), we’d likely be more focused on Pope’s anemic adaptation of Michell’s 2015 memoir about rescuing an oil-slicked penguin, nursing him back to health and creating a “forever” friend for as long as “forever” lasts. Pope gets the basics right but errs when he attempts to meld politics with stupid pet tricks.
Yes, Michell’s relationship with his feathered friend unfolds amidst the backdrop of Argentina’s bloody 1976 military coup. But as hard as Pope tries, he still struggles to adequately reconcile these disparate events. That’s not to suggest that “The Penguin Lessons” is pedantic. You’re just left feeling it could have been a whole lot more satisfying. And what it is is a predictable meditation on how self-destructive grief can become if left to fester.
In Michell’s case, it’s deadened his soul to the point that he’s no longer living, merely existing in the wake of a devastating family tragedy. He becomes bored easily, as evidenced by his inability to settle in one place. In recent years, he’s taught English in Chicago, Venezuela, Brazil and Ecuador. “I’ve been working my way south,” he quips to the headmaster, Timothy Bachel (Jonathan Pryce in a nothing role), upon his arrival in Buenos Aires in the thick of explosions and gunfire.
His new boss at the stuffy St. George’s prep school assures a skittish Michell he’ll be OK if he limits himself to “a small ‘p’ when it comes to politics.” Almost as soon as the words leave his mouth, we know Michell will disregard the admonition. But it’s going to take a while. First, we’re whisked off to Uruguay for a mini-excursion on which Michell, accompanied by his new Finnish colleague, Tapio (Björn Gustafsson), hopes to enjoy some amorous female companionship.
Director Peter Cattaneo, of “The Full Monty” fame, uses this jaunt as a means for Michell to suffer yet another female rejection only to find love with the penguin he discovers near death on an oil-saturated beach. It’s not so much meet-cute as it is meet-awkward, courtesy of sloppy editing that jettisons characters without explanation and leaves story holes we’re left to fill in for ourselves. I suspect these noticeable gaps were the direct result of impatient suits issuing decrees to Cattaneo to fast-forward to the penguin, who, as it is, we don’t meet until more than 20 minutes into the movie.
The suits’ supposed instincts were correct because just prior to Juan Salvador arriving on the scene, the story was on life-support. With him, it gradually gains momentum, culminating in a tear-jerker ending I must admit I didn’t see coming. Recognizing a good thing when he sees it, Pope invents a plethora of opportunities for the penguin to elicit automatic “awws.” But when it comes to the humans, most are strictly one-note, with Pryce as the taciturn taskmaster, Gustafsson as the unworldly innocent and Vivian El Jaber as Coogan’s grousing housekeeper.
For much of the film, Pope spins his wheels, fixated on Michell’s attempts to foist the bird off on a local zoo while hiding the little guy out in his impressively spacious quarters on the St. George’s campus. If the headmaster ever caught wind of such a flagrant infraction, Michell would surely be tossed out on his ear. But perhaps that’s what Michell is secretly hoping, as he takes greater and greater risks by introducing Juan to his housekeeper and her activist daughter, Sofia (Alfonsina Carrocio), before bringing him to class in an effort to capture the divided attention of his room full of arrogant Richie Riches.
Pope and Coogan generate some genuinely funny one-liners drenched in the latter’s trademark sarcasm. And, of course, Juan is worth the price of admission. Where the production flounders is in the clunky way Pope endeavors to incorporate the forceful seizure of a key character while Michell, although present, does nothing to stop the abduction. His ensuing guilt inevitably impels him to be a better man and take a more active role in his life and those of his students and co-workers.
Cattaneo’s desire to interweave the penguin’s comical antics with the graveness of the coup is as baffling as Michell’s seemingly overnight resolve to take a stand against his friend’s oppressors. It’s two storylines that are incompatible. Yet, Coogan and the bird somehow find a way to leave you in a puddle of tears. The source of this emotional outpouring is the epitome of shameless manipulation. But darned if it doesn’t work. You might say it’s all part of the “Lesson” plan.
Movie review
The Penguin Lessons
Rated: PG for some sexual references, thematic elements and strong language
Cast: Steve Coogan, Jonathan Pryce and Björn Gustafsson
Director: Peter Cattaneo
Writer: Jeff Pope
Runtime: 111 minutes
Where: In theaters March 28
Grade: B-
