Detachment (2012)

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

One-note atmosphere of despair that keeps piling up more and more as film goes on. But worth watching for the performances, especially Adrien Brody. If only the animation interludes had been used to take us somewhere away from the dark themes to show life's joys as well. (Sarah Watts did this to great effect in her 2005 film Look Both Ways). Any feeling of hope is missing, only death and decay.

Although the movie goes around without a proper plot the movie is worth watching only for Brilliant Acting of the Adrien Brody...

Henry (Adrien Brody), a substitute teacher, is a fragile, broken, complex man who, according to Director Tony Kaye, "lives in his mind and doesn't want to come out of it." Henry encounters a runaway girl who lives on the street and a troubled teen in school who - during his one month stint teaching at a high school - try to pull him out of his contained life. The problem with Detachment is in the storytelling and the flashbacks. They are too convoluted. Most egregious is how the runaway, the high school kids, and their parents are portrayed - in an over-the-top stereotypical way. It is too bad Detachment's execution is not on par with the superb acting of Adrien Brody, James Caan's, Christina Hendricks, and the rest of the talented actors and actresses involved. If the writer had taken the time to rid the story of some of the unnecessary issues and characters, and the stereotypes, perhaps Detachment would have resonated with more viewers and film festivals.

I became curious about this film because I read where this film was Same Gayle's feature debut. I didn't know anything about this person other than her role on Blue Blood and that show limits her acting strength after seeing Detachment. Here was a film that Tony Kaye directed with an understatement that disguises the powerful argument for sterilization. The students have dissolved into disrespectful future parole violators and the parents, some of them, are the source of these problem children. And trying to ride that ship in turbulent waters in the Adrian Brody character. His attempts to settle those waters is a force of nature one man cannot do alone. But I don't know if he calms those waters following a tragedy or if all hell hits the place and that was a dream? I don't know how old Sami Gayle was when this role was filmed but her corrupt innocence is washed over as an abused prostitute. Her first time encounter with the Adrian Brody character isn't Pretty Woman, a film I hated for it's depiction of the happily ever after prostitute. Sami Gayle's prostitute had more realism to it. The only misgivings I had was that the audience never got to know the results from her medical test. Perhaps it was edited out for time. And the teachers were excellent. I saw where Adrian Brody was the producer for this project. He pulled some top notched actors that made this work. James Caan , Lucy Lui, Marsha Gay Harden, Christine Hendricks, the other guy who held on to the chain link fence, all were good. And while watching this, you had the feeling that some student might go off on the deep end and that was predictable and not unexpected but it was done with the right tempo and uniqueness, no gun play.And I saw where it didn't do well at the box office. Well, with video on demand, I hope this avenue will work out for them so that more eyes can watch this exceptionally independent film.