“Nadiv Lapid’s Hebrew-language The Kindergarten Teacher was one of the more unshakable films of 2015, with its wonderfully inscrutable nature,” begins Jordan Hoffman in the Guardian. “One of the most important things that writer-director Sara Colangelo has done in her American remake is keep the central mystery intact. There is a list of small changes, some tweaks to the characters, a few added jokes, but this is very much the same movie told a second time. Is that necessary? Sure, why the hell not, especially when either version is so great. Moreover, it’s a chance to see Maggie Gyllenhaal give one of the best performances of her career.”
“Lisa (Gyllenhaal) has taught kindergarten for twenty years, finding ample satisfaction in being around children,” writes Tim Grierson, setting it up in Screen. “This enjoyment may partly be a response to the fact that her own kids, who are in their teens, no longer have much use for their overbearing mother. Then one day, she’s entranced by Jimmy (Parker Sevak), a boy who seems to be a poetry prodigy. Convinced Jimmy needs a champion to reach his artistic potential, Lisa starts insinuating herself more and more into his life.”
This “story of a woman’s manic quest for a vicarious life of art and passion could easily be read as a tale of bored middle-aged hysteria,” grants Emily Yoshida at Vulture. “But Lisa’s drive is more than biological; it’s intellectual and emotional, and that’s what keeps what often risks becoming camp madness in an identifiably human place—almost all the way to the end.”
“Considering that the welfare and stability of a pint-sized kid are at stake, the degree to which humor factors in is remarkable,” notes David Rooney in the Hollywood Reporter. “Even as Lisa goes completely rogue, and the suspenseful thriller element is fortified, the tonal mix of searing melancholy and danger is tempered with playful notes.”
“The equivocation with which Colangelo presents Lisa’s motivations and actions can’t help but draw us in,” writes Dennis Harvey for Variety. “The lack of any real resolution in terms of psychological insight, however, leaves this a movie whose glass is half empty—maybe it’s just not possible to have a story about a five-year-old’s de facto stalker that isn’t sure what it (or we) should think about the matter.”
“Brilliant work by costume designer Vanessa Porter, who gives Lisa a regality through slinky, shabby chic dresses and necklaces that she knows are wasted on a schoolyard, and a beautiful, unsettling classical score from Asher Goldschmidt, add to a film that’s elegance brings out just how out of line its main character has gotten,” writes Stephen Saito.
“I felt that I could give the story a completely new spin and really anchor it in a woman’s point of view,” Colangelo tells Women and Hollywood. “And I felt strongly that there was an opportunity to talk about the value and space we give art in the United States, as well as complicated issues such as authorship, genius, and mediocrity.”
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