Movie Summary of Detachment by Michael The Moviegoer.

DETACHMENT = **

“High School Low”

“Detachment” is a perfectly descriptive title of the relationship between this film and its audience. Directed by Tony Kaye with an in-your-face abstract artsy approach, the film is a sloppily edited mess despite fine performances from its cast.

Adrien Brody stars as a substitute high school teacher hired by the school’s principal Marcia Gay Harden to sub for one month while a new permanent teacher can be found. Through his eyes we meet his troubled students, the school administrators, and various other characters. Brody’s character is an odd mix of Rambo and “Star Trek’s” Spock as he is determined to save every troubled soul he encounters.

But the film really shows us troubled teens through Kaye’s eyes where high school is as dark and vicious as it can get. Kaye approaches this subject with borderline contempt for teens and an education system that is broken and seems beyond repair.

James Caan and Luci Liu have strong supporting roles, but newcomer Sami Gayle as a teenage street hooker is the most impressive. With all the actors hitting their marks in front of the camera, it’s disappointing that Kaye would waste these good performances in post-production by giving the film a fractured and emotionally disconnected treatment.

DVD Double Feature:

I’ve always hated when studios take control of a film out of the hands of its director. I prefer to see the director’s version of their own work. For years I had hoped that Tony Kaye’s original director’s cut of “American History X” would be released. Kaye infamously disowned the commercially released version of his film, even trying to have his name removed from the credits, after star Edward Norton and film editor Jerry Greenberg took control and re-edited the film. After seeing “Detachment” I am now quite sure that Norton rescued “American History X” by making it watchable. Maybe Adrien Brody should have done the same.

Michael The Moviegoer