Tom Michell does not want to be here.
From the moment Michell arrives in Buenos Aires, Argentina—right at the outset of a military coup in the late 1970s–he makes this clear to anyone that will listen.
Hired to teach English at a male boarding school through a tenuous connection to the current headmaster, Michell spends more time with newspaper crosswords than teaching comma rules to his class.
After a few days, the military dictatorship claims control of the city, forcing the boys home. With their impromptu holiday, Michell and the school’s physics teacher travel to Uruguay looking for, in Michell’s words, a chance to “dance, drink, and meet a couple of nice ladies.”
Michell finds just what he was looking for. An evening of flirtation and dancing turns to a nice morning walk on the beach with a woman. But that lovely walk is marred when, in the sunrise, they encounter an oil slick covering the beach. And in that slick are the penguins. Dead, oil-soaked penguins.
Only one penguin seems to have survived the catastrophe, and it’s barely alive, wiggling its beak and wings in the grime of the oil spill.
Michell’s curmudgeonly reply is to leave the penguin to die. “There’s nothing we can do…You can’t interfere with nature.”
But the woman’s not so inclined to walk on by. She demands they do something, and Tom (who is certainly interested in the woman, if not the penguin) finally agrees. They pick up the oiled penguin and sneak him into their hotel to clean him up.
But romance and oily penguins don’t mix well. Tom’s attempt at seduction quickly fails and the woman leaves him alone with the penguin.
Michell and the penguin stare at each other. They both seem to know he has a choice: One, Michell could try to dump the penguin back on the beach in Uruguay, leaving the bird to its fate. Or two, the teacher could somehow smuggle his new penguin friend through customs back to Argentina and onto campus and evade the strict “no pets” policy at the school.
For fans of animal-centered dramedies, it is not hard to guess what happens next.
But Michell and his penguin (whom he later affectionately names Juan Salvador), are both about to learn how much you really can change when nature interferes with you.
With The Penguin Lessons set against the backdrop of the military coup and the kidnappings taking place throughout the city, Several characters must make difficult choices: Stand up for what they believe in and risk everything or stay silent to stay safe.
After deciding to keep the penguin, Michell is confronted with the reality of his choices and grapples with the notion of what it means for good people to sit by and do nothing in the face of difficulty. What really makes someone good?
Once Michell begins to connect and confess his feelings to the penguin, things around the school begin to change.
He brings Juan Salvador to class and suddenly the boys start paying attention to his English lessons. He confides in the school’s janitors about hiding Juan Salvador and forms real connections for the first time since his arrival.
There are no direct references to spirituality or religion throughout The Penguin Lessons. However, several characters discuss themes of redemption and the purpose of life.
Each of the main characters share private conversations with Juan Salvador throughout the story. As he is a penguin, these conversations are one-sided and resemble, in a way, confessions.
Two characters share a series of passionate kisses before the woman pulls away to leave and lets the man know that she is actually married.
One female character wears a revealing shirt as she bathes a penguin.
The critical backdrop for the story is the 1976 Argentinian military coup. We see several explosions in the distance of the skyline and cityscape.
Several characters mention friends and family members that have “disappeared” (kidnapped) in Buenos Aires as fascists, loyalists, and communists fight for their respective sides.
In one harrowing moment, Michell witnesses one of the maids at the school being kidnapped on the streets by several men in broad daylight. The scene is sudden. unexpected, and designed to show how the kidnappings occurred without warning. The latter portion of the film focuses on several people trying to free this character from the local military leaders of the coup.
One of the coup’s local leaders threatens Michell to leave a cafe where they have shared a conversation. This scene would likely be intense and frightening to some younger viewers.
It is implied that a character is beaten up offscreen. We see his bruises and a bloody face the next day.
Several military members pull guns on characters.
A character is hit in the head with a pot lid.
Two uses of “f——.” Nearly a dozen uses of “s—.” Two misuses of Jesus’ name. We hear a few crass references to male anatomical parts.
Michell and the physics teacher share several drinks throughout The Penguin Lessons, both during their holiday in Uruguay and on the terrace outside their rooms at the school.
A few teenage boys bully and pick on one of their classmates. In one scene, they tie his hands using a school necktie and pretend to torture a confession out of him as if they are fascists and communists in the Argentinian coup.
The bodies of the dead penguins in the oil slick arrive without warning and could be traumatizing for younger viewers.
[Spoiler Warning] No dramedy with an animal in its title and at its center is complete without a heartbreaking moment. Juan Salvador dies as Michell finds his body near his bowl of food following the end of the school term.
Based on true events, The Penguin Lessons draws on the real Tom Michell’s memoir of living with a penguin in Argentina while teaching English to teenage boys in the 1970s.
From the moment Michell is left with the penguin in the hotel room, he tries to get rid of him: throwing him into the ocean, leaving him at customs before returning to Argentina, offering him to the local zoo near the school. Each of these attempts is unsuccessful.
And in the end, Michell—along with so many others—are blessed that Juan Salvador waddled into their lives.
For his class of boys, the penguin unlocks their ability to learn and understand the romantic poetry of the great British poets. For the headmaster, the penguin changes his stance on the school’s role in the politics–leading to the eventual freeing of a kidnapped maid.
And for Michell, his connection with Juan Salvador re-opens a wound and the real reason why he’s fled so many teaching jobs and countries before arriving in Argentina. His melancholic cover starts to crack and reveals the depths of his pain and trauma in his life.
For parents of younger viewers, the morose sarcasm of Michell, his profanity, and the violent content may overshadow the charm of this animal story.
Yet, under the surface, we find lessons about redemption and second chances. And if one little penguin can trigger so much positive change, you might just wonder what sort of good you can do, too.
Jackson Greer is a High School English Teacher in the suburbs of Texas. He lives in Coppell, Texas with his wife, Clara. They love debating whether or not to get another cat and reading poetry together. Also, he is a former employee of Focus on the Family’s Parenting Department.
