Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!
Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
Stephen Abell I was really looking forward to this tale of revenge and learning as the premise sounded entertaining. A teacher, Mr Gale (Hands), who is ridiculed daily by his students, decides to take matters into his own hands and to elevate their learning curves by some extreme teaching methods.You do get what you expect; there are some nasty scenes of violence and abuse. The scene where Mr Gale nails the hand of his student, Fin (Bendall), to the desk looks realistic. It's the realism which could have made this movie something special.I've known families like Fin's and his brother's, Jake (Cox), where the brothers don't get on... to the point of arguing, fighting, and forsaking. I've also known the senseless bullies of Fin and Joel's (Coltart) order. Though I do hope that the scene in the schoolroom isn't that realistic - if it is, I pity the teachers and can understand the twenty-six-grand to study to teach the government are offering.The trouble starts when you get to the tortuous indoctrination. Through all of the bleakness, we are then subjected to a gayfull and lunatic lesson. This departs from reality and enters the demented. Which, in itself wouldn't be a bad thing had Mr Gale been suffering from a mental break. However, this doesn't appear to be the case. Then when you throw in Fin's delusion it was enough to wrench me away from the film, thinking, what the hell(?). From here the story and character of Mr Gale become preposterous and unbelievable. I felt that both the writer and the director, Ruth Platt, were trying too hard to get their point across, making the story appear pompous and pretentious.It's from here on in that the film falls apart.The really ludicrous thing is the scene where Jake's Girlfriend, Tanja (Gavanski), is accosted and forced to in the lesson. She's worried that Fin's not come home, though his brother doesn't give a damn, so she sets out to find him. She wanders the town aimlessly and just by coincidence comes across Mr Gale. This is absurd because the abduction takes place outside. How did Mr Gale know she was there, let alone that she had an interest in one of his captives.Then there's the timeline which is totally cockeyed by the end of the film. So what started out as an okay film drops into a quagmire of below average revenge torture fodder.If you like your revenge stories and can empathise with teachers then this may be worth a watch, though it could have been much better and even could have made a statement. Though I would say you'd be better off with the Hostel or Saw franchises.
kosmasp ing on a somewhat decent idea, the movie unfortunately does not take full advantage of its potential. If you like your torture movie and don't mind or rather cherish low budget movies that look better than the money that has been spent on it, than you are in for a treat. Unfortunately that is a very low bar.And while I do salute any movie that makes the most of a very tiny and small budget, that does not take away the fact, that it has to be just judged by those merits. Especially if you have so many clichés thrown into the mix. There is gore and there is offensive material aplenty. Don't confuse trying to shock with wit though. Does it try to be witty? Yes. Does it succeed? No. I reckon someone did not do their homework properly ...
Andrew O'neal This movie should be called, the torture of the audience.The teacher instead of torturing the students, whom he torture went to the audience.Another point of the film is that, the one who should have paid they did not pay like they suppose to..I do not recommend this trash, but that is on you.You want to waste your time be my guest
lavatch With the gratuitous violence, it is difficult to understand what is the message of "The Lesson." The film began as a realistic domestic drama about family dysfunction and juvenile delinquency. It then lapsed into the horror genre with grotesque and virtually nauseating violence.Each of the male characters in this film was unsympathetic. Only the women's roles tended to refute the thesis of William Golding's novel "Lord of the Flies," which seems at the heart of the filmmaker's concept. In that novel, the bestial nature of a group of young British schoolboys emerges when they must co-exist on a deserted island.In "The Lesson," a formerly idealistic English teacher takes revenge on his recalcitrant and foul-mouthed students through the long scene that comprises his lesson on Enlightenment thinkers like Rousseau, Milton's epic "Paradise Lost," the Romantic critics, and Charlotte Brönte's "Jane Eyre."The most interesting character in the film was not the teacher, but Mia, who becomes the heroine when she shows comion for her young step brother who did not return home. But the odd final scene compromises her strong character with a surprising plot twist.It was obvious that the screenwriter had a good handle on modern literature. The most clever moment occurs when Mia determines to keep in her possession one of the demented teacher's books, the 1966 novel "Wild Saragossa Sea" by Dominican author Jean Rhys. This is a postmodernist sequel to Brönte's "Jane Eyre" built around the secondary character of the Bertha Mason, the "madwoman in the attic" of the home of Rochester. Of course, the name Berta Mason was the correct answer given to the mad instructor's question, and her response was what saved Mia's life while she was a hostage.It is tempting to borrow one of the of the English teacher and suggest that "The Lesson" is filled with irony. But that would be far too great praise for this muddled and overly violent film.
