Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 124
Fresh: 86 | Rotten: 38
Freedom Writers is a frank, formulaic entry in the inspirational inner-city teacher genre, with an energetic Hilary Swank leading the appealing cast of unknowns.
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 33
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 10
Freedom Writers is a frank, formulaic entry in the inspirational inner-city teacher genre, with an energetic Hilary Swank leading the appealing cast of unknowns.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 269,053
Assigned the thankless task of teaching freshman English at a gang-infested Long Beach, CA high school, a 23-year-old teacher resorts to unconventional means of breaking through to her hardened students in director Richard LaGravenese's adaptation of Erin Gruwell's best-seller The Freedom Writer's Diaries: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. Her students had been written off, and her chances of succeeding scoffed at, but Erin Gruwell (Hilary
PG-13, 2 hr. 2 min.
Jan 12, 2007 Wide
Apr 17, 2007
$36.5M
Paramount Pictures
All Critics (132) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (94) | Rotten (40) | DVD (29)
Engaging but clichéd inspirational drama set during the time of the 1992 race riots in Los Angeles. On some level, just about any movie featuring never-say-die teachers is effective.
Square, sincere, and proud of it.
Our eager-beaver heroine suffers the kids' sarcasm, fails to earn their respect by bringing in a Tupac tape, then wins them over in a crucial scene that, fact-based or not, rings as false as anything in Dangerous Minds.
Corny? You bet. And worse when the plot veers into the glitz of a Dangerous Minds and the sappiness of a TV After School Special. But the movie, which Swank helped produce by using her clout as a two-time Oscar winner, gets to you.
Freedom Writers is another exceptional teacher scenario not so different from the norm.
It's not a great movie, but at-risk teens could do a lot worse.
The movie benefits from an interesting subject and good acting, I just wish it were more focused and deep.
Unless you're a teacher longing to identify with your lifestyle on screen, this movie is still just another of many in an already oversaturated genre.
Familiar plot has a strong, inspirational message.
A richly rewarding film experience that rises to the top of its genre.
While it is, like its genre brethren, inspiring and uplifting, Freedom Writers glosses over so much material that it makes the process look too easy.
Ironically, the film features almost zero teaching. Despite much pedagogical posturing, it doesn't teach us much, either.
The HD-DVD version of Freedom Writers includes just one high definition item among its extras: the movie trailer.
Worthwhile because of its honesty, because it tells a true story that's worth telling, and because Hilary Swank and company have done it so well.
Is this film formulaic? Yes. Does it accomplish what it set out to do? Yes. ... It's certainly not a perfect movie but it does offer many pleasures.
Paramount's DVD presentation provides further incentive to give this movie a look.
Swank's earthiness is key here, and she consistently rises above the story's cliches.
an intelligent film about complex issues, social and emotional, personal and professional, all handled in a way that challenges the audience rather than reassures or placates it.
Moving and compelling drama finds Hilary Swank as a high school English teacher named Erin Gruwell. Ms. Gruwell is teaching teens (who are thought to be "unteachable") in the inner-city, and realizing they have all been affected by crime, gangs, and/or violence in one way or another, she starts a project allowing them
July 20, 2011Super Reviewer
Inspirational... A must see!
June 23, 2011Super Reviewer
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