The Penguin Lessons

Steve Coogan continues his collaborative streak with screenwriter Jeff Pope in The Penguin Lessons, a heartwarming true story adapted from Tom Michell’s 2015 memoir. Coogan and Pope have teamed up before with much success on “inspired by real events” fare such as Philomena (2013), Stan & Ollie (2018), and The Lost King (2023). Each film supplies an entertaining time at the movies, armed with some fascinating touches of history and social relevance, without ever becoming preachy or didactic. They’re Sunday afternoon watches, leaving an affable, charmed impression despite often grappling with heavy topics. The Penguin Lessons follows suit, telling the story of an English teacher (Coogan) who, in Buenos Aires in 1976, just as a military coup seizes control of the government and dissenting voices begin disappearing, learns how to care about his teaching and other people again with the help of a penguin. Despite being quite commercial in its approach to the subject matter and inspiring teacher mode of drama, it’s a sturdy, if conventional, production with plenty of modern-day relevance. 

Coogan and Pope work under the direction of Peter Cattaneo, who never quite popped after The Full Monty (1997), his indie hit about blue-collar workers who become exotic male dancers. The filmmaker proves himself adaptable to the Sony Pictures Classics mode of British dramedy—see recent examples such as Wicked Little Letters (2024), The Duke (2020), and The Phantom of the Open (2022). It has an unassuming style that hardly warrants close examination of the formal execution, offering an airy touch to the proceedings, aided by Federico Jusid’s light score and Xavi Giménez’s textured on-location cinematography. There’s not much going on here cinematically, but it’s a style that often works on this critic, in part because movies like this one often feature solid performances from an excellent cast, some effectively manipulated emotions, and irresistibly sentimental stories based on real life. The Penguin Lessons checks all of those boxes. 

Coogan plays Tom Michell, who has taught English in some of South America’s best schools. When he arrives at St. George’s, a boarding school for Buenos Aires’ upper class, the stuffy, rule-bound headmaster (Jonathan Pryce) tells him to keep politics out of his lessons. They wouldn’t want to draw any attention to themselves amid the Argentine coup d’état, where the military overthrew President Isabel Perón (and would remain in power until 1983). Not that Tom concerns himself with Argentina’s internal politics; he’s been wearing blinders for years. His first lesson for his students: “Sarcasm,” which is his preferred communication method, complimenting Coogan’s comic sensibilities. It helps shield Tom from becoming too invested in anything or anyone—a side effect of having lost a child and, as a result, his marriage. So when he’s asked to help the rugby team or socialize in any form, Tom bemoans the assignment. 

After an interlude to Uruguay, where Tom escapes for a weekend getaway—accompanied by a talkative Finnish professor (Björn Gustafsson) who’s immune to irony and sad over his best friend and wife having an affair—he finds a penguin washed up on a beach as a result of an oil spill. “There’s nothing we can do,” he claims, until he’s begrudgingly convinced by a would-be hookup (Micaela Breque) to rescue the animal. The penguin soon bonds with him, and following his encounters with sympathetic police and border guards, he returns to Buenos Aires with the bird in tow. Part of the story follows Tom as he learns to care for the animal, which he names Juan Salvador after the Spanish-language translation of the book title Jonathan Livingston Seagull. He also witnesses how others at the school connect with the animal. Pryce and Gustafsson’s characters use the flightless bird as a confidant. Sometimes, we need someone to listen, even if they’re probably thinking about their next helping of sardines. Cue the cloying animal reaction shots. 

Tom’s pupils become interested in English because he brings the bird to class, where he uses poetry to teach his students about independence and freedom. Tom’s lesson extends into the current political situation when he bonds with the school’s cleaning staff, specifically Sofía (Alfonsina Carrocio), over the penguin. He initially does nothing when Sofía becomes one of the many to “disappear” at the hands of the military junta. The penguin reminds him to be engaged in his surroundings, whether natural or political, and to care about others he might not normally consider his responsibility. Unfortunately, even after Tom’s brief encounter with the police, Pope’s screenplay inadequately confronts the reality of the situation in Argentina. The disappearances are numbered in the tens of thousands. While the movie reveals this on an end title screen, it doesn’t fully convey the extent of those atrocities. 

The Penguin Lessons is part of a recent cinematic trend of tackling South American dictatorships, their crimes, and the lasting trauma—seen in the work of Chilean director Pablo Larraín (El Conde, 2023) and the recent Oscar-winner I’m Still Here (2024). While Cattaneo’s movie supplies a stirring parable about resisting apathy and standing up to fascism—a timely message, to be sure—it does so in the least confronting way possible, at least in terms of its portrait of the Argentine military dictatorship. Worse, Juan Salvador’s unceremonious fate proves distressing and a stern reminder that wild animals shouldn’t be kept as pets or placed in cramped zoos. Nevertheless, Coogan’s affable presence smoothes over many of the movie’s rough spots, lending the picture charm, even if it doesn’t quite reach the status of Dead Poets Society (1989) with a penguin.