"Freedom Writers" is the toned-down, PG-13 version of "Dangerous Minds" without the accompanying Coolio song.
"Freedom Writers" is based on the real-life experiences of Erin Gruwell. Gruwell was a young 23-year-old teacher assigned the task of teaching freshman English in a gang-infested high school in Long Beach, Calif. Just out of college, Gruwell was given the task of teaching English to a group of students that didn't seem worth teaching.
Director Richard LaGravenese's adaptation of Gruwell's best-seller, "The Freedom Writers Diaries: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them," shows the unconventional means a determined young teacher used to break through to her hard-knock students.
In the movie Hilary Swank portrays Erin Gruwell as a persistent women trying to reach her students who won't give her, or anyone else, the time of day. Long Beach is a plcewhere teenagers live in a racially divided community, already exposed to gang violence, juvenile detention and drugs. When Gruwell enters, the students see her as an outsider attempting to understand what they're going through.
Despite their initial hostile reaction Gruwell receives in the classroom, she uses the writings of Anne Frank and other literature to teach not only English, but compassion and tolerance as well. By embracing an educational curriculum that valued and promoted diversity, Gruwell transforms her students' lives.
She encourages and challenges her students to rethink beliefs about themselves and others, to reconsider daily decisions involving violence and drugs and to re-plan their futures. With unwavering support from Gruwell, the "unteachable" students shatter the stereotypes that have plagued them for so long.
The class named themselves the "Freedom Writers" in homage to the civil right activists "The Freedom Riders." Gruwell serves as president of the Freedom Writers Foundation. She raises awareness by traveling nationwide to speak inside large corporations, government institutions and community associations.
And of course, there's a dance scene when Hilary Swank tries to show she has rhythm and is just like her young hip students by dancing with them. Awkward for everyone.
"Freedom Writers" plays at the Varsity Theater this Friday at 9 p.m. and Saturday at 6 and 9 p.m.