Finding love again in The English Teacher

Julianne Moore is at her best as a forty-year-old unmarried high school English teacher Linda Sinclair who shares a small apartment with two Siamese cats. No relationships, no children. Her life is uncomplicated, and she likes it that way. Although she has a fervent passion for language, words and literature, he love life is passionless and lonesome.

That's until former 20-year-old star pupil Jason Sherwood (Michael Angarano) returns to Kingston and his muse a miserable failure after trying to make it as a playwright in New York. Linda can't stand the thought of Jason giving up on his dreams, not when she can help so she decides to produce his play - a dark, angst-ridden, ambitious work - as a Kingston High production, with flamboyant drama teacher Carl Kapinas (Nathan Lane) directing. The passionate words of the impassioned playwright soon brings out the cougar in Ms.Sinclair and soon sparks a fire in the leading ladies of the play, causing a hilarious but moving romantic drama to unfold.

The Flames of Love

The English Teacher is one of those films that has its heart in the right place and shows how words and can inspire to the extreme, just as wrongful communication can kill the flames of love. It also questions the pros and cons of censorship, of conservative conformity that reshapes the intention of the writer, and refocuses the attention words get when its profoundness awakens unspoken desires and probes the darker issues of life we tend to mostly shy away from.

If you are looking for wholesome entertainment in the tradition of Love Actually, where it's all about the people and not about how many cars explode, The English Teacher is the ideal film to snuggle up to. It's funny and amusing, but equally uplifting and meaningful, taking us into the heart of loneliness and shows how true passion can change everything. Make a date with The English Teacher, it's one of those films you will remember long after you left the cinema and who knows, it might even inspire you to seek true love.

Behind the scenes

"Watching this film come to life is truly a dream come true, we've been living with these characters for many years now," says screenwriter Stacy Chariton. "All of these actors could not more perfectly embody these characters that we've been living with. It absolutely is uncanny. The work leads into our lives in a very beautiful way so that, as we help our characters deal with the problems in their lives, we usually find that they bleed through into our own. There's been a lot of that through this particular film. It took a long time to get this movie made. It's been 6 years since the first draft. It's been through a long process, but we have incredible producers who stuck with it. Independent filmmaking is very difficult, as we all know." Says Michael Angarano: "I thought the tone of the script was very interesting because while it's funny, you're also dealing with pretty interesting complex characters who in their own way have failed. Everybody is dealing with their own form of failure, and they come together realizing that their own ambitions could be reached within their own happiness." "It's a story that we've all experienced, mistaken perceptions of people," says director Craig Zisk. "Without sounding too cliché, don't judge a book by its cover. The character of Linda played by Julianne jumps to a lot of conclusions without thinking about what the consequences might be, and I think that's very relatable. That's something we've all done before. We've all decided what we think about somebody before we really get to know them. In a series of events in this movie, she realizes she's done that probably more than she should have." Read more: http://www.writingstudio.co.za/page1037.html.