Movie Review: The Penguin Lessons – Teaching Compassion, Courage From An Unexpected Friendship

Movie Review: The Penguin Lessons – Teaching Compassion, Courage From An Unexpected Friendship

The movie The Penguin Lessons, starring Steve Coogan, was an interesting exploration of the evolution in consciousness of one person. It’s a somewhat heartwarming story, with a touch of sadness and regret, but the change in the main character becomes mutedly profound.

Unfortunately, it is only toward the end of the movie when the professor finally starts to love and really care for the penguin, whose story the movie centers around. But the lack of caring that he shows for the poor creature is really very sad, and it is really an exposition of how not to care for a lost penguin.

The movie begins with the professor traveling to the university where he was hired to teach English, in Argentina. The first 30 minutes, before we meet the penguin, is mostly about politics in that place, which were very visible right then: how politics should not be in the classroom, how the government there is about to fall, and, of course, the military coup that takes place shortly thereafter. When the coup is happening, the professor decides to take a vacation to Uruguay to let things cool down.

In a strange story, he meets a girl at a bar that he thinks wants to be with him. But while walking along a beach, they find a penguin, one small, lonely bird, among all his brethren who are dead. He and his family were victims of an oil spill, and he was seemingly the only survivor. They sneak him back to the hotel room where the professor is staying, and they clean him off. When he bites, the professor wants to leave him and not help, but the girl ties her stocking around the bird’s beak, and after that he never bites again (in the whole movie).

But at the end of their cleaning him up, the girl quickly leaves with little explanation, and he’s left with the penguin. Did I mention, he hates penguins? Presumably he hates most animals, but specifically here he hates penguins. He says this multiple times to several different people.

The next morning he tries to set the poor bird free, but it doesn’t work. After he throws the bird into the water, the penguin comes to find him on the beach, and just stands near him. The bird is most likely bewildered by the loss of everyone dear to him, and this professor is his only friend in the world. And he loves the professor; from the tips of his toes to the end of his beak, his love is evident throughout.

As previously mentioned, this love isn’t  returned at this point in the movie. Other beach goers notice the penguin, and when he explains what happened, they convince him that he must take the penguin with him. He must be the one to care for it, as it’s evidently chosen for him to be the caretaker. So, he takes the penguin back to Argentina.

Naturally, this is not quite so smooth, as the security after the boat (their version of customs) finds him. They want him to pay $50 to take the bird, but he argues he can’t pay, so the customs people must keep him. They then let the professor go without paying, making him take the penguin. This funny scene was included in the trailer, and it’s quite silly.

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The next parts of the movie were somewhat upsetting, especially if you love animals. The neglect that he shows to the penguin is really disheartening. First, the penguin is made to sleep in the bathroom, on the cold tile floor (no bedding, no box, no sand) for what seems like the entire movie. While he is a penguin, and adapted to the cold, he probably would have appreciated more attention to his environment.  The professor says it’s because he smells like fish that he doesn’t like him. During the day at first, he locks the penguin on the porch. Alone. The entire day.

Perhaps even more importantly to the bird’s wellbeing, he never hugs him, pets him, or in any way shows him affection. While there are others in the movie who do show such affection, it is clear that the professor is the one being from whom the penguin truly wants and needs love. A love he doesn’t receive. It becomes understandable when you learn about his own tragic past, which helps to explain his intense bitterness, which is carried very well by the actor. When you remember the research from Harry Maslow (cruel research using baby monkeys that shed a lot of light on the need of all creatures for affection, tenderness, and love), it is evident that the penguin was starved for affection. Food is not enough for animals, and penguins are particularly sensitive and caring creatures.

However, there is the simple reasoning that this was 1976. In Argentina,  an apparently rural place.  No internet. No wildlife rehabilitator nearby. No books about the care of penguins by humans, not in a zoo. No way for him to know if he was doing right by the penguin. But still, the level of neglect he shows at times verges on mean.

It’s not the penguin’s fault that he is in that situation, that he was stuck in an oil slick. But the professor did rescue him, and as one of the boys in his class points out, the penguin would have died of grief had he not been taken and rescued. This is because penguins mate for life, and when their mate dies, they almost always also perish. It is toward the end of the movie when the professor finally started to let him into his heart, and knowing the penguin started to really change him as a person. This is put over very well by the actor, who does an excellent job of making us despise him. He is a bit of a jerk (I’m being generous in not using harsher words), but he does start to evolve as a person from his friendship with the bird. The character of the professor is aware of his own distasteful nature, as he remarks on it several times in the film.

Shortly after he brings the penguin back to the school, a local girl and her grandmother who work as contractors for the school come by to clean his apartment. They discover the penguin’s mess, and so he shows them the penguin. The young girl working with her grandmother falls in love with the bird instantly. She says she wants to adopt him and care for him. The professor is ambivalent about the prospect, but then she and her grandmother are able to feed the penguin. For the several days it was with the professor, the bird didn’t eat once. He thought the bird was going to die.

Once he starts eating, things do improve. The professor and the girl have a political discussion, which she was apparently having elsewhere, and she is very liberal and against the new military dictatorship. They give the penguin a name (Juan Salvador as a shortened version) – much better than the professor’s original idea of Peter Penguin. A short time later this girl is abducted on the street in broad daylight just after speaking to the professor. He stands there helpless, knowing that if he interferes, he too will be kidnapped.

After this, professor brings the penguin to the zoo, which he believes is best for the bird. The girls’ grandmother begs to go with him to say goodbye, but when she sees the zoo, she tries to insist that he keep the bird. When he sees the conditions of the space where Juan Salvador would be kept for six weeks in isolation, he is legitimately concerned that he won’t survive for that long in such neglect. This is a different kind of neglect, of utter despair and hopelessness that the other penguin they have is clearly exhibiting. He decides against leaving the penguin at the zoo and brings him home.

Then, the professor decides to bring the penguin to class. His students are not only not learning up until then, but they are being disruptive and bullying is occurring. When the boys learn they can feed the penguin, and that he’ll be in their classes, they are overjoyed. And they keep the secret from the headmaster, who would fire the professor if he knew.

The rest of the movie demonstrates its name, as the students learn with the penguin there day after day. The discussions become more and more political, as the professor uses subtle poetry and prose about revolution and freedom, but the boy’s grades improve.

One day, the headmaster brings the professor into the office. He wants him to be less political.

The next day, as the teacher is walking through town, he sees one of the people who kidnapped the cleaning girl sitting with his young daughter. He walks over with the penguin, and the girl begins to pet and play with the bird while he speaks to her father. He speaks in hushed tones, and is taking a large risk. He talks about the girl’s loss as being harmful to the penguin, who she was planning to adopt and care for. His reward is getting thrown in jail, but he asks a shopkeeper to bring the penguin back to the college just before it happens. He is let out of jail the next morning, with his physics professor friend waiting for him. This physics professor likes the English professor as a friend, but even he can’t figure out why (he is, as mentioned previously, a jerk and knows it).

Something that was odd in this movie was the way men, boys, women, and girls reacted to the penguin. Adult men saw him as a therapist to spill their thoughts, hopes, and fears to. Women and girls alike both just wanted to hug, hold, and cuddle him. The boys in the class were kind to the bird and affectionate, somewhere between the men and women.

The movie was done very well. It was interesting to watch the penguin’s interactions and influence on the lives of everyone he came in contact with. The penguin mirrored the professor’s every move, making it clear throughout the movie who his best friend was. It’s too bad the professor didn’t notice, since it was very hard to miss. The penguin was real also, which really allows the audience to connect with him in a way that wouldn’t have been possible with animatronics or CGI.

BABA/RICHARD the penguins as Juan Salvador, STEVE COOGAN as Tom Michel in ‘The Penguin Lessons’ Image: Lucia Faraig Ferrando. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

As movies go, this was very well done. Excellent storytelling, many plot twists, and an endearing supporting character (the penguin). It was a good experience watching it, and the film has grown on me. It wasn’t my favorite at first, and I may not watch it again. But I am happy to have seen it, as the penguin’s kindness changed many lives. Plus it’s a true story, so you know that most of this actually happened in real life.

This movie is rated five stars, and if you are seeking a slow paced, deeply personal biographical story that reads well and is well done, this is a great movie to go see in theaters. It was quite pleasant to watch and a welcome change.

Banner Image:  STEVE COOGAN as Tom Michel, BABA/RICHARD the penguins as Juan Salvador in ‘The Penguin Lessons’ Image: Andrea Resmini. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics 

Jennifer Taylor