Maria (Saoirse Ronan), a primary school teacher doing her best to inspire a class of 10-year-olds, is stifled by one unruly and chaotic student. With her career in question and the child's behaviour spiralling, she makes a series of bad decisions that lead to her accidentally taking and locking this 'bad apple' in her home. Maria tries desperately to backtrack, but when the class starts flourishing and the staff and parents are thrilled with the improvement, she finds herself in a very complicated predicament.
The Garden Cinema View:
This is a surprisingly dark and daring classroom drama that puts the audience in occasionally enjoyable and sometimes horrifying situations. Director Jonatan Etzler shrewdly leads us to first empathise with the unassuming, pushover teacher, then follow her into a series of morally despicable decisions - all set in motion by a pure accident.
It's hard to watch and not ask what you'd have done in her place, as we swing from deep belly laughs to the hairs on the back of our necks rising at what unfolds on screen. What holds these extremities together is a truly impeccable performance by Saoirse Ronan, who time and again chooses morally complex roles over safer ones.
The result is a tight (if occasionally heightened) satire about a flawed educational system that can't handle, or understand, deeply troubled characters and exceptions.
