Welcome to an American inner-city high-school that could be called "Crash and Burn" because that's what seems to be going on there. The principal, Carol Dearden (Marcia Gay Harden), is being forced to resign; the teachers walk out on a pep talk by a school official who's concerned about the falling property rates in the neighborhood; no fathers or mothers show up for Parent's Night; and most of the students have no interest whatsoever in learning or going to college.
Henry (Adrien Brody) has seen it all before as a substitute teacher. The kids in his class realize that he is something different with his honesty, intimacy, high regard for respect, and interest in their emotions and stories. Henry also serves as the major caretaker for his grandfather (Louis Zorich) who is dying in a nursing home. Both men are haunted by past events in the family circle. Henry has regular flashbacks to his alcoholic mother's suicide, and his grandfather can't die until his grandson forgives him for some horrible act.
Another teacher, Ms. Madison (Christina Hendricks), goes out to dinner with Henry but he is not interested in a relationship. Instead he expends a lot of his emotional energy on helping two female lost souls. He gives shelter to Erica (Sami Gayle), a 15-year-old prostitute living on the streets, and he tries to lift the spirits of an overweight student (Betty Kaye) who is bullied and belittled by classmates despite her talent for photography. Henry even empathizes with Mr. Wiatt (Tim Blake Nelson) a depressed teacher who feels like an invisible man, getting no respect from the youth in his classroom or his wife and son at home.
Adrien Brody's multidimensional performance as a big-hearted high-school teacher who has learned the art of equanimity is what makes this dark film memorable. Director Tony Kaye has assembled an impressive cast for this up-close-and-personal look at a failing inner-city high-school. The screenplay by Carl Lund goes a little too far in its grim accumulation of details about the characters and their woes. But Kaye and company are to be commended for taking on such a complicated subject and exploring it with such soulful maturity.
Special features on the DVD include an interview with director Tony Kaye and Academy Award winner Adrien Brody and interviews from the Red Carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival Premiere of Detachment.
