The Penguin Lessons

A penguin may not be the obvious choice to lead a story about the 1976 coup in Argentina but, after laughing and occasionally tearing up watching The Penguin Lessons, you’ll agree it just may be the best one. Loosely based on the memoir by Tom Michell (Steve Coogan), an English teacher who arrives at a prestigious academy for boys in Buenos Aires just as the country is heading into political turmoil, the film is a delightful surprise.

Tom Michell seems lost. He’s a disillusioned Brit who keeps his head down and does nothing …until, in an attempt to impress a woman, he rescues a penguin from an oil slicked South American beach. What he didn’t realize was that the penguin was about to save him and many others. The Penguin Lessons is inspired by Michell’s 1976 stint as an English teacher at an elite all boys boarding school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The country was in chaos and on the verge of becoming a dictatorship along with the forced “disappearance “ of some of its citizens. While the politics at that time is important to the story, it’s the Magellan penguin named Juan Salvador who is the star of the film. A uniquely understanding stare and a cute waddle does wonders for anyone who crosses the creature’s path.

Many of the most delightful cinematic experiences offer a delicious, sugar-coated pill, that is, very serious personal and/or political commentary encased in a light-hearted, humorous narrative. The Penguin Lessons delivers exactly that in its laugh-out-loud characters’ interaction set against the backdrop of Argentina’s 1976 military takeover involving illegal arrests and ruthless murders. Declaring martial law, under the newly installed junta, authorities killed an estimated 30,000 people, many known as ‘the disappeared’ whom families never found. This grim history sounds ill-suited for comic treatment. However, director Peter Cattaneo accomplishes an exquisite balancing act of hilarious scenes and terrifying oppression by relying on the irresistible charm of the title Magellanic penguin and the sensational comic timing of Steve Coogan.