FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

capone666 Won't Back DownThe hardest part about taking on a corrupt educational system is you having to raise your hand to ask permission to go to the washroom during talks.However, the angry mothers in this drama are sans hall pass.After noticing a lack of teaching at her daughter's (Emily Alyn Lind) school, concerned parent Jamie (Maggie Gyllenhaal) confronts her daughter's teacher.Disturbed by the educator's apathy, Jamie takes her issues to the principal (Bill Nunn), but to no avail.While attending a progressive education seminar, Jamie spots a teacher, Nona (Viola Davis), from Malia's school there.Assuming an affinity for change, Jamie convinces Nona to help her take over the school.A contrived concoction of real-life situations and Hollywood melodrama, Won't Back Down is plagued by easy answers and self-righteousness indignation.Besides, how are teachers supposed to teach kids math when they're already busy potty- training and disciplining them for the parents?(Red Light)vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

Robert W. I suppose I am being a bit of a cynic in saying that this film makes changing the education system look so simple. Yes they struggle don't get me wrong but the film certainly glorifies idealism and makes everything end up in a neat little package with a bow. The school they create is like an idyllic paradise and that is simply unrealistic. However, now let me digress. There is nothing wrong with a film that makes you feel good, spreads hope and cheer and inspires change and this film does all that. It is sweet and uplifting and even fun at times and entertainment value is very high. It tries to channel something like Erin Brockovich while keeping things clean enough for a family film. Despite its G rating the thematic elements make it at least PG in my mind but still a good movie for the whole family. Performances are good without being really outstanding although I thought the lead performance by Gyllenhaal was just a little bit overdone at times like she was really trying for that outstanding Academy Award performance because this is seemingly the type of film that would get it for her. Unfortunately the film didn't do that well and its too bad because despite the few tiny little mis-steps it really is a great film.As previously mentioned, Maggie Gyllenhaal is the co-star playing distraught mother Jamie whose dyslexic daughter is being lost in the system. She is good in her role but she really does milk it. I feel bad saying that because I feel like I'm trashing a feel good movie and I don't mean to be but sometimes she just takes the distraught mother to extremes. Viola Davis is brilliant. She does emotion and desperation brilliantly. She definitely helps bring Gyllenhaal's performance a little more under control as the two of them together are very good. Oscar Issac is decent as Gyllenhaal's love interest and a concerned teacher. He is very underused and his character is left very underdeveloped but he has some very good scenes nonetheless. Emily Alyn Lind as Gyllenhaal's daughter is very good. She really does a great job in each scene she is given. I think she is a very talented young lady (recognizing her from Revenge as well.) The supporting cast is a whose who of character actors including a decent and yet somehow awkward feeling performance by Holly Hunter, Lance Reddick, Vingh Rhames, Bill Nunn and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. A very large and varied and talented cast.Despite a lot of talent in the cast I don't necessarily think it was all used to its very best. I feel like there were several conflicts in the film that they really built up that they leave the audience hanging on. As the movie watcher you really wanted to see that one teacher who was just awful get her just comeupins and yet the entire conflict is left open. She forced the daughter to wet her pants and there was hardly even any confrontation. I felt like that was sloppy writing. At times the direction and script felt rushed and even slapped together. Its unfortunate because the film is so full of heart and hope and inspiration. But it does overcome its shortcomings and will make you smile and feel good and that is what counts. It only bothers me to see wasted potential and I think there was a fair bit of it in this film. Still the perfect movie for family night and you will certainly cheer multiple times for these passionate women. 7/10

DICK STEEL Won't Back Down may sound like an apt title for an action film filled with bloodlust, but it's more civil, although it is about picking a fight and doing battle against establishment that had not benefited nor served the average man, or in this case, woman on the street, and those that it represents, protects, or serves. The USA centric storyline will require a little reading up on the background of the Parent Trigger Law passed in California, which allows parents to enforce overhauls in public school administration, and basically have a say in how things are run. This story is inspired by that, written by Brin Hill and director Daniel Barnz, to become a true underdog struggle.Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis headline the movie, playing the two interest groups that are affected broadly by change that's impending for the Adams Elementary school, where the former plays a single mom Jamie Fitzpatrick whose daughter Malia (Emily Alyn Lind) is enrolled in the school but being dyslexic, learns almost nothing but still got passed through the levels because frankly, nobody cares. Davis plays one of the many teachers in the school, but as Nona Alberts, she probably is the only teacher who cares about the proper education of her students, but is getting little support and attention. Add to that, she also has a son Cody (Dante Brown) who's a little bit slow to learn. Put two and two together, and joining forces, they would take on the administration, unions, and fellow teachers to try and convince everyone there's a better place they can elevate everyone's position to.The film may seem to have an axe to grind with educational bureaucracy, since many characters on the other side are portrayed as emotionless, wanting to keep the status quo because rocking the boat doesn't serve their purpose (probably expanding their scope of work). The usual fat and lazy labels are easily applied to every bureaucrat, even making them take on the usual hiding behind the cloak of anonymity, or throwing arguments out the window because of technicalities, and the list goes on. Tasked to taking a stand publicly and individually, is probably in the fantasy fiction arena, but undoubtedly proving to be quite delicious an experience when things had to come to an explosive, though expected, conclusion.And for those who are anti-establishment, you'd probably attest to the myriad of games and dirty tricks those in power will play, in order to squash ideas and ideals that are not to their advantage. Things like character assassination, coercion, threats made on livelihoods and jobs, and enticement with benefits to the leaders to give up the good fight and abandon the rest fighting for the same ideals. And if one is up against positions of power, then expect one's history to be scrutinized, and blotches made a mountain of. It will reveal character then, if one can stomach the good fight for something one believes in, or throw in the towel to back away, disappointing many in the process, especially those who had responded and heeded the call to assist.Being a film, one will expect the usual Checkov's gun being cocked early and unleashed when required, providing meat into a subplot to show how deep the establishment's reach can get, especially when one is under threat. And the film is naturally never without a romantic angle, provided by another teacher at Adams Elementary (played by Oscar Isaac) who finds the time to romance the very busy Jamie Fitzpatrick, having to juggle a number of jobs, odd hours, attention paid to her daughter as well as to fight the good fight against social injustice. At times though, the pace and narrative needed tightening, as elements and scenes got introduced for the sake of adding some further depth to a character, without real necessity to do so, such as Nona's deeply buried history concerning her kid.If looked from a bigger picture angle, Won't Back Down applies beyond the US school system context, and is often reflective of experiences of those fighting for causes they believe in, going up against a behemoth called the system, organization, or establishment that has resources and clout. It's a pure underdog story that could be enjoyed, even though it's about the dirty politics that get played out behind the scenes.

napierslogs Jamie Fitzpatrick (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a single mother trying to hold down two jobs, struggling to afford a good education for her daughter. "Won't Back Down" is her fight to change the public school system. Joining her is a strong, tough, independent disenchanted black teacher, Nona Alberts (Viola Davis). It's a drama poorly marketed as anti-union propaganda and was just as poorly received.The film isn't as bad as the critics' ratings, the dismal box office performance, or the word-of-mouth criticism suggests. It's certainly not great. The predictability, the cloying sentimentality, and desire for perfection make sure it won't reach the great heights that the film seems to have envisioned for itself. But for people who like dramas where a disenfranchised community comes together to fight against a system, the film does hit the right notes.Overall the acting is great, even though Davis can kiss her award chances goodbye. Gyllenhaal was the only one that attempted to add some comedy to her role. She has always been great at melding together drama and comedy and more comedy always seems to be a good thing. The best role, however, was Oscar Isaac who played both Jamie's love interest and a teacher who was doing his best to not fail the students. He supported the union, respected his fellow teachers, respected his students, fell in love with Jamie and supported her cause even though his multiple stances would frequently be at odds. He also did all of the above with a guitar strapped over his shoulder and made little girls laugh with renditions of Johnny Cash songs. It's too bad he won't be able to garner any Oscar buzz.I'm assuming one of the major issues with the failing of this film was the timing of the release. Although September marks the beginning of the school year, it is also a time of hope, optimism for the year that could be. Parents and children alike believing that this year they're going to find a teacher that inspires them and see their dreams for the future come true. It's not a time for the reminder that the public school education system sucks. This film would be better left for February, during the ides of winter, when students and parents alike are struggling to learn what they're supposed to know and have lost the optimism they had just six months earlier. At its best, "Won't Back Down" would be able to provide that lost hope; fighting the good fight, as long as that doesn't get too monotonous.