Director: Peter Cattaneo
Cast: Steve Coogan, Jonathan Pryce, Vivian El Jaber, Bjorn Gustafsson, David Herrero, Alfonsina Carrocio
Screenplay: Jeff Pope
110 mins. Rated PG-13 for strong language, some sexual references and thematic elements.

In Philomena, Steve Coogan (Joker: folie a deux) spends time with Judi Dench and becomes a better person. In The Penguin Lessons, Steve Coogan spends time with a penguin and becomes a better person. Both are written by Jeff Pope. Do with that information what you will.

The Penguin Lessons is the story of Tom Michell (Coogan), a British schoolteacher recovering from a personal tragedy, who accepts a job in 1976 Argentina during the collapse of the Argentinian government. While there, he accidentally takes in a penguin and is forced to care for it, knowing nothing of the species and certain of his firing should the headmaster (Jonathan Pryce, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl) discover the penguin’s existence.

The Penguin Lessons certainly has more in line with the prior work of its screenwriter, Pope, than its director, Peter Cattaneo. It would be all too easy to approach the material assuming that the director of films like The Full Monty and The Rocker would be turning in another raucous and bombastic comedy, but The Penguin Lessons is far more introspective and assured. Coogan is himself a performer who has turned in goofy over-the-top performances in films like Tropic Thunder and Hamlet 2, but here he’s a man who is lost in the world surviving in a country that is also in search of new identity. His new roommate is a penguin without a home, and together they are merely trying to find a place in it. It’s fascinating to see how Cattaneo orchestrates something like the introduction of a penguin as a catalyst for change, and the balancing act that Coogan has to accomplish to both resist and eventually give in to his new normal.

Coogan’s performance is the shining element of the film because he isn’t afraid to portray Tom as extremely unlikable for a solid portion of the story. He commits to the choice, and he finds an interesting hook in Tom’s character that makes for a powerful character journey, and he finds a chemistry with the penguin, named Juan Salvador in the film, that is actually endearing and fraught with real and understandable conflict.

It is through his relationship with Juan Salvador, and by extension the grandmother and granddaughter maids who help him care for the penguin, that Michell is able to confront his own cowardice and really understand his place in the growing world and his current predicament with the political unrest in Argentina. I found myself equally engaged in the subplot concerning them as I was in the penguin’s safekeeping.

The Penguin Lessons is a likable and sweet little story that allows for a nice little character turn from Coogan against a fascinating historical backdrop. It doesn’t reinvent the narrative in any real way, nor does it need to. What it does is done well here, and it’s sure to give hope to those who need it, even where none exists.

3/5
-Kyle A. Goethe