Monsieur Lazhar (2011)
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Monsieur Lazhar Movie Review
Monsieur Lazhar is a 2011 Canadian drama film directed by Philippe Falardeau and starring Mohamed Fellag. It’s a perfectly solid, but forgettable movie.
An Algerian teacher is hired to replace a teacher who committed suicide in her own classroom. While helping his students deal with their grief, his own recent loss is revealed. This film deals with two different issues. One is child’s grief and just how painful tragedies must feel like to children. The other is immigration with all its pitfalls as well as the problems that stem from multicultural societies, including racism itself.
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These issues are solidly dealt with it here, though the depth and nuance that should be present in these discussions are largely absent here. The grief element was better handled than the racism one, and I do contend that the film would have fared better had it chosen one of these two subjects instead of both.
For a movie like this, emotional depth and engagement are also necessary, and they were not found here unfortunately. It’s mostly an overly cold movie, which was surprising given the heartbreaking tragedy-driven narrative. I just did not feel much watching this movie and that was a big problem for me and this film.
Mohamed Fellag was a comedian before getting this role and he was surprisingly good here. His character is the only one who got a more meaningful arc while all the others felt underdeveloped. The scenes dealing with racism were a bit too on-the-nose and hardly realistic, but the teacher-student relationships are so moving here and those are the heart of this picture.
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Monsieur Lazhar is technically rather mediocre. The cinematography, directing and editing are all just passable with no truly elevated aspects to be witnessed anywhere. The film is also part of a new trend in Canadian cinema that focuses on international themes and subjects, which to me is problematic as it is always more interesting and culturally authentic to focus on your own country and its issues. The movie was nominated for an Oscar, but it was hardly deserving of it.
Monsieur Lazhar is an Oscar-nominated Canadian drama dealing with two different issues – how children experience grief and the problems facing multicultural societies. The film should have chosen one of these subjects as it did not have enough time to focus on both of them properly. It’s a well acted, moving and competently made film, but one that is only serviceable in most of its aspects, lacking truly inspired elements.
My Rating – 3.5
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#1. Which of these Canadian movies were also Oscar-nominated?
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