Won't Back Down2012
Won't Back Down (2012)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Despite the best efforts of its talented leads, Won't Back Down fails to lend sufficient dramatic heft or sophistication to the hot-button issue of education reform.
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Movie Info
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Cast
as Jamie Fitzpatrick
as Nona Alberts
as Evelyn Riske
as Michael Perry
as Breena Harper
as Malia Fitzpatrick
as Cody Alberts
as Principal Thompson
as Charles Alberts
as Principal Holland
as Arthur Gould
as Olivia Lopez
as Yvonne
as Deborah
as Ben
as Tim
as District Receptionist
as Principal Chamudes
as Cody's Teacher
as Clay Bathgate
as Valerie Bathgate
as Jan
as Hank Hunt
as Tyler
as Mr. Brandt
as Ms. Southwick
as Mr. Mannis
as Ms. Schwartz
as Mr. Parrish
as Mr. King
as Thompson's Assistant
as Bureaucrat #1
as Bureaucrat #2
as Bureaucrat #3
as Daddy Drop-off
as Babysitter
as Rhonda
as Adam's Parent
as Teacher #1
as Teacher #2
as Riske's Assistant
as Landri
as Dana
as Nintendo Kid
as Boy at Lottery
as Girl at Lottery
as School Superintendent
as Thomas
News & Interviews for Won't Back Down
Critic Reviews for Won't Back Down
All Critics (103) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (34) | Rotten (69) | DVD (1)
It mixes attempts at realism and grit with transparently Hollywoodized good guys-vs.-bad guys social melodrama. That requires a deft directorial hand, but director Daniel Barnz doesn't seem to have it.
Social-issue movies can have real societal impact. That's why Won't Back Down, which presses a lot of hot buttons, deserves to be taken seriously, and criticized seriously, on its own terms.
Won't Back Down doesn't wholly make the grade.
Americans desperately need to have some difficult conversations about the state of public education, but Won't Back Down goes about the task too awkwardly to be helpful or interesting.
"Won't Back Down" details a bureaucratic process, and yet it plays more like an intense, emotional movie about parents and children.
While the cast is filled with award winners, writer-director Daniel Barnz is a dunce who can't construct an argument without employing flimsy logic and cardboard characters.
Audience Reviews for Won't Back Down
3 3/4's--Very inspirational, and heartwarming. Made-for-tvish. A sad statement on the condition of the American education system, but depicts a good step for improvement. Well acted. Nicely done..
Super Reviewer
It's a film with a big heart, but it's just so schlocky... Maggie Gyllenhaal plays essentially the same role she did in Crazy Heart, and the supporting ensemble does alright, but as a whole the project is sentimentally overwrought and occasionally veers into Lifetime territory. I appreciate the value of the story, but it's just not much of a movie... "fighting the system" has become a predictable formula, and this particular film does nothing others haven't done already.
Super Reviewer
Won't Back Down is a prime example of a movie that suffers from a weak script and average direction, but is saved by excellent and noteworthy performances. Having grand aspirations regarding the failing education system in urban public schools, it ultimately gives no solid solutions and overgeneralizes the myriad problems regarding said topic. Quite obviously, the movie leans heavily toward the right politically. (Damn those corrupt Teacher's Unions! If only everything ran like a business! That would fix urban blight!) Nevertheless, the performances given by Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal and the supporting cast keep the whole venture afloat. And it holds together better than "white savior" schlock like The Help. But when compared to other movies in its particular sub-genre such as Stand and Deliver and Lean on Me, or when its message is seriously analyzed, it doesn't quite make the grade.
Super Reviewer
Won't Back Down Quotes
| Olivia Lopez: | I live and breath this bureaucracy. I share your frustration. I read Kafka to make myself feel better. |
| Nona: | Change the school, you change the neighborhood. |
| Principal Thompson: | This is a new day and we will take back our public schools. |
| Nona Alberts: | Dare to think! |