Detachment (2012)
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 65
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 28
Detachment's heart is in the right place, but overall it doesn't offer any solutions to its passionate ranting.
Average Rating: 5.2/10
Critic Reviews: 19
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 12
Detachment's heart is in the right place, but overall it doesn't offer any solutions to its passionate ranting.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 4,939
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Movie Info
In Director Tony Kaye's Detachment, Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body,
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Cast
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Adrien Brody
Henry Barthes -
Marcia Gay Harden
Dearden -
James Caan
Mr. Charles Seaboldt, M... -
Lucy Liu
Dr. Doris Parker, Dr. P... -
Christina Hendricks
Ms. Madison, Ms. Sarah ... -
Betty Kaye
Meredith -
Tim Blake Nelson
Mr. Wiatt -
Bryan Cranston
Mr. Dearden, Richard De... -
Louis Zorich
Grampa, Henry's Grandfa... -
Blythe Danner
Ms. Perkins -
William L. Petersen
Mr. Serge Kepler, Sarge -
Sami Gayle
Erica -
Isiah Whitlock Jr.
Mr. Mathias -
Chris Papavasiliou
Dr. Hart -
Kwoade Cross
Andy -
David Hausen
Angry Dad -
Roslyn Ruff
Angry Mother -
Gerald Walsh
Cafeteria Worker -
John Cenatiempo
Male Child Services Off... -
Brenda Pressley
Female Child Services O... -
Tiffani Holland
Cindy -
Lucian Maisel
Mr. Wiatt -
Alex Boniello
Dennis -
Sze Ming Au
Ellen -
Mary Joy
Female Orderly -
Michael Hammond
Frank -
Ronen Rubinstein
Gangsta -
Al Calderon
George -
Brennan Brown
Greg Raymond -
Celia Schaefer
Gretchen from the Free ... -
Reagan Leonard
Henry's Mother -
Tarikk Mudu
Jerry -
Kevin T. Collins
John in Apartment -
Stephen Payne
John on Bus -
James Hosey
Kenny -
Michael Herz & Llyod Kauf...
Kid in Henry's Class -
Nancy Rodriguez
Lupe -
Justin Campbell
Male Orderly -
Aaron Sauter
Marcus -
Josh Pais
Meredith's Father -
Renee Felice Smith
Missy -
Doug E. Doug
Mr. Norris -
Rebecka Ray
Mrs. Wiatt -
Patricia Rea
Ms. Estrada -
Mama Kohn
Prep Club Girl #1 -
Corwin C. Tuggles
Ricky -
Lonon Jay Wilson
School Cop -
Samantha Logan
Spitting Daughter -
Ralph Rodriguez
Student #23 -
Annabel Barrett
Student #4 -
April Maxey
Tanya -
Amber Vanterpool
Tina -
Eli Massillon
Tony -
Alsharik Sejour
Tutored Kid -
Jonathan Hudson
Wiatt's Son -
Elvis Muccino
Young Henry
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Detachment Trailer & Photos
All Critics (66) | Top Critics (19) | Fresh (37) | Rotten (28) | DVD (1)
A loud, grating wallow in dime-store despair.
Top CriticThe film is guilty of reverse sentimentality, where the relentless unhappiness comes to seem as manufactured and artificial as the schmaltz in a romcom.
Detachment gets an A for enthusiasm but a C for execution.
There's something weirdly effective about the artistic desperation, which includes inserts of chalkboard animation and to-the-camera testimonials.
Everywhere you turn in Detachment, someone is trying to make you feel like hell.
Detachment gets to you. It hits hard.
It's a film so well paced with a message so relevant that it deserves an audience bigger than what it got and it deserves more of an emotional impact than will resonant throughout.
While Adrien Brody gives it his all in his performance, the film suffers greatly from an attempt to equalize its multiple plotlines.
Even a talented director like Tony Kaye (American History X) and a great performance from Brody can't save a mess like this.
Detachment is the sort of film-of-the-week that ought to appeal to anyone who loves movies in the purest sense.
Detachment has such original energy and is so infused with righteous anger that it proves hard to dismiss.
The acting is excellent but the movie is the sort of thing that gives pessimism a bad name.
Despite its title and central theme, Tony Kaye's complicated lament for values abandoned and children betrayed leaves little room for indifference.
Admittedly, the film is heavy-handed in places, but it still makes you sit up and take notice.
Grappling with the dilapidation of America's school system is fair enough, but the movie is painfully undone by its pretentious poetry of despair.
If Detachment is only partially successful, it is still more watchable than most school sagas.
It is pretentious and overbearing at times but passionate.
It is a touch more subtle than X, carrying off the tough trick of being both amusing and depressing.
It's watchable enough, but the bludgeoning screenplay seems undercooked compared to the high-grade actors on show.
Like the recent Margaret it rages against the dying of the light in a country where too many people think the lights are still on.
It's a vaguely elegant brute of a film, but a long way from Kaye's best.
Stylishly directed and sharply written, this is an engaging, if ultimately depressing drama with strong performances from a superb ensemble cast.
Tony Kaye's penchant for piercing filmmaking hasn't gone anywhere.
Incredible performances from the cast, but Detachment is perhaps just too pretentiously depressing for its own good.
It's impossible to take his didactic diatribe as seriously as it takes itself.
Audience Reviews for Detachment
Super Reviewer
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- Henry Barthes: We have such a responsibility to guide our young so that they don't end up falling apart, falling by the wayside, becoming insignificant.
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- Henry Barthes: We all need something to distract us from complexity, reality.
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- Henry Barthes: I realized something today. I'm a non-person, Sarah. You shouldn't be here, I'm not here. You may see me, but I'm hollow.
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- Erica: You afraid you'll like it?
- Henry Barthes: I'm afraid you've gotten fucked and thrown away so many times you've gotten used to it.
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- Henry Barthes: You may see me, but I'm hollow.
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- Henry Barthes: Whatever is on my mind, I say it as I feel it, I'm truthful to myself; I'm young and I'm old, I've been bought and I've been sold, so many times. I am hard-faced, I am gone. I am just like you.
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Foreign Titles
- El profesor (ES)
About the movie? I'm not really sure what the message is here. That life sucks and even the smallest effort to reach out to each other will bite you in the ass? Nice.