MOVIE · 2011

Detachment

Drama98 min

Adrien Brody is Henry Barthes, a substitute teacher who drifts from school to school and never stays long enough to form much of a bond with students or staff. Over three weeks at one public high school, his guarded routine becomes the lens for a wider portrait of exhausted teachers, frustrated administrators, and teenagers struggling inside the classroom. Marcia Gay Harden and Christina Hendricks are part of the faculty ensemble as the film moves between Henry’s lessons and the pressures building around him. The focus stays on the institution as much as the man passing through it, with Henry observing lives he usually keeps at a distance.