The Kindergarten Teacher

2018 • 96 minutes

About this movie

Stuck in an unsatisfying marriage and with teenage children who ignore her, 40-year-old Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal) treads water by teaching kindergarten with quiet dispassion. One day everything changes when Lisa discovers that Jimmy, a five-year-old boy in her class, may be a gifted poet and sees him as a ticket out of her mundane life. When Lisa presents some of Jimmy’s work at her poetry class as her own work, and receives praise from her teacher (Gael García Bernal), her desire to mentor the child genius grows. As fascination turns into obsession, Lisa spirals downward on a dangerous and desperate path to channel her unfulfilled creative dreams into the protégée.

Ratings and reviews

Very thought provoking. Should leave you with many questions about the teacher and her motivates and at at a deeper level about society.

Complex and thought provoking. Different

Unnecessarily graphic violence