Movie review: Won't Back Down ****

Stars: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Holly Hunter, Oscar Isaac
Director: Daniel Barnz
Rated: PG
Showing: Neptune Theatre week of Friday, October 5 - Fri-Sat, 2.30pm, 6pm, 9pm; Sun, 6pm; Mon-Thurs, 2.30pm, 6pm, 8.45pm. For more information call 292-7296.
Tickets: Buy tickets online
Runtime: 121 minutes
Drama

There's nothing more alarming to power than people organizing themselves to usurp that power.

Even if that power is a union, an organization founded to protect the many from the abuses and whims of the few.

That's the message of Won't Back Down, an inspiring story of a working-class parent hellbent on doing right by her child, and a once-idealistic teacher who reluctantly joins her in an effort to remake their school from a chronic failure that breeds chronic failures into a place that gives its kids a fighting chance.

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis put on an acting clinic as single mom Jamie and struggling teacher Nona, who use Pennsylvania's school "fail-safe" law to "change the culture" at their Pittsburgh school, "expecting more" of their children, the kids' parents and the teachers who instruct them.

Jamie (Gyllenhaal) is a bubbly working-class mom, holding down two jobs and fretting endlessly over her daughter Malia (Emily Alyn Lind, radiant), a child with learning issues and a teacher who checked out years ago. One look at teacher texting in class, the bullying kids the teacher can't control and the principal (Bill Nunn), who barely pays lips service to her concerns, has Jamie convinced Adams Elementary needs to change.

She wants her daughter in Nona's (Davis) class, where, despite bureaucracy, tradition, state requirements and union rules, Jamie spies the glint of a teacher who still cares, who remembers the crowded funeral where former students wept at the death of her own teacher-mother.

Oscar Isaac, having a break-out fall (10 Years) plays Michael, a ukulele-playing idealist who is even more reluctant than Nona to join this crusade, a guy who "just wants to teach," who grew up seeing unions as a force for good, especially in schools.

And Holly Hunter is the union boss who understands that they've failed to get ahead of this idea that failing schools cannot be allowed to continue to fail simply to protect jobs, tenure and pensions. She makes the usual moves to head off this "threat" to hard-won teacher's rights, but lets us know that she's conflicted about her role in this saga, that her heart isn't in the tactics her boss orders her to use.

Won't Back Down is a well-directed and edited film that gives most of its cast moments to shine and takes full advantage of the mercurial Maggie G. and simmering but fiery Davis. Daniel Barnz, who also co-wrote this "inspired by a true story" with Brin Hill, goes to some pains to pay lip service to the greater complexity here. Arrogant, political and reluctant-to-act school boards, exhausted or apathetic parents who don't want to add 20 hours of work to their week helping their kids, they all contribute to a school's failure.

As complex as this simple us-against-the-odds tale tries to be, it can't overcome the rules of its genre. Still, the big moments work, the big scenes pay off and the big emotions are earned in this plucky movie about a couple of people realizing that they can make a difference. Your school isn't succeeding? Don't get mad. Get organized.