THE PENGUIN LESSONS - Mark Reviews Movies

The Penguin Lessons, Sony Pictures Classics

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 27, 2025

The premise of The Penguin Lessons is certainly strange, even if it is based on a true story. That story is set in Argentina in 1976, witnesses the military coup that would result in the systematic abductions and murders of several thousand people, and follows a British teacher at an exclusive boarding school in Buenos Aires as he basically adopts a rescued penguin. Director Peter Cattaneo's film, then, is in a state of tonal contradiction at its very core, as it deals with the very real consequences of a totalitarian government and the sentimental notion that a penguin might be able to provide answers to people in distress about that reality.

It probably shouldn't work, but Cattaneo has the good sense to put that difficult balance in the hands of star Steve Coogan, whose character exists somewhere between and separated from both the atrocities suggested by the material and the schmaltzy notion that drives it. Initially, Coogan's Tom Michell doesn't want anything to do with either the politics of Argentina or the cute bird for which circumstances almost force him to take responsibility. He's too tired from his past and cynical about life to believe that he could do anything about such a grave political situation or to put up with the trouble of keeping a penguin.

Obviously, Tom eventually learns that he does have some degree of responsibility in both matters, as the reach of the military dictatorship extends toward someone he knows and the penguin's dependence on him for its survival becomes impossible to ignore. Because Coogan plays the character with such early detachment, the performance makes it easier for us to accept the inherent contradiction that exists between the two sides of the story. As Tom starts to care deeply about both the ramifications of the dictatorship and the flightless bird, Coogan also guides those very different stories as they merge into a strange tale, yes, but an affecting one, too.

It does help, of course, that Jeff Pope's screenplay is founded in some kind of reality, since it's adapted from the real Michell's memoir and some old home movie footage, shot by the man himself, before the end credits proves the basic premise to be authentic. Tom arrives in Buenos Aires as tensions between the military and left-wing militants are rising (A soldier at the school points a gun at him upon his arrival, because it just happens to coincide with an explosion nearby).

He'll be teaching English to students, who are the sons of wealthy and influential families in the country, according to Buckle (Jonathan Pryce), the school's headmaster. They're the types of families, the headmaster continues, who don't want outside politics to become any part of the curriculum, so as long as Tom keeps his head down, he should do just fine. After everything he has gone through and being past his youth of idealism, Tom is very happy to keep his head down, stay out of other people's business, and exist as someone who will others will forget as quickly as they meet him.

Coogan plays that side of Tom—the sarcastic cynic who doesn't take anything seriously—with ease and plenty of humor. His Tom is dry and blunt, just shy of abrasive while dealing with a fellow teacher (played by Björn Gustafsson) who can't get over a very bad break-up. When the coup happens and students are sent home, Tom decides to travel to Uruguay to drink, hang out in clubs, and maybe meet a woman or two. He almost succeeds, but while walking down the beach with a woman he met in a club, the two discover an oil spill and, among its dead peers, a penguin that has survived.

The short of it all is that Tom brings the penguin back to school, after repeatedly and ironically failing to push the bird on to anyone else, because everyone assumes it is Tom's penguin and is too sympathetic to take it away from him. Eventually, he lets local housekeeper Maria (Vivian El Jaber) and her granddaughter Sofia (Alfonsina Carrocio) in on his secret, starts taking the penguin to class to maintain his easily distracted students' attention, and begins almost reflexively talking to the bird about things he doesn't want to share with another person.

Again, there's the also the dire political situation in Argentina with which the film must contend. Rumors of disappearances start to spread, as more and more people learn about the penguin. Soon enough, Tom is right there when someone he knows is taken off the street by government officials, and while he wants to help, he later tells the penguin that, he couldn't rationalize taking action, he was mainly, to his great shame, afraid of what might happen to him.

The sincerity of Cattaneo's approach to this material is important, of course, because we have to accept that the film is respectful of the terrible history it's presenting, even as it has some laughs at and really sells the cuteness of a penguin hanging around a school, getting into some occasional mischief, and becoming a confidant to several characters. It succeeds in that regard and on both fronts, to be sure.

It would be easy to undersell just how vital Coogan's performance is to that success, however. The Penguin Lessons is told entirely from Tom's perspective—that of an outsider and a man who is, to his very core, terrified of what else life might have in store for him if he does connect to others or tries to make some kind of difference. Coogan makes that story matter, too, and in his ability to be both off-handedly funny and authentically wounded, the actor sells us on the whole oddity of this story.

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