Freedom Writers

"Inspired by a true story". This phrase always gives me cause for concern when applied to a motion picture. This usually tells me some screenwriter has taken a small grain of truth and turned it into a piece of fictional Hollywood crap which is what I suspect happened with FREEDOM WRITERS. It is supposed to be based on a series of diaries written by Los Angeles inner city gang kids for a school project after the Rodney King riots. Maybe it is...I haven't read them so I can't say. What I can say is the teacher, a naive goodie two shoes played by Hilary Swank is a believable character. I know people like her and they do make the world a better place. The kids in the class though, supposed to be a ununited nations of gang members are not believable and look like they were casted from the friggin' Mickey Mouse club. The scene where they use the Holocaust museum as an instrument to teach these kids the dangers of racism.....maybe it happend but in the context in which it is presented here it is not believable. Nice bit of Hollywood drama......but not believable. Still, the message in this film is an important one especially with the similar problems we are now seeing in our Canadian school system. It's worth it to show your kids but as adult entertainment...forget it.