The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 74

FILM Friday, Augustll, 1995 21 The Cincinnati Enquirer -em Dangerous9 liaisons CRITIC'S PICKS Pfeiffer puts soul into familiar story BY MARGARET A. McGURK The Cincinnati Enquirer starring Michelle Pfeiffer, tells a story that, nrankly, we've heard before. Yet it teDs that storv with such oiercine emotion that it it 3 (irwi) i 111 11 yk Li I II 7: Of seems brand new. Based on My Posse Don't Do Homework, LouAnne Johnson's account of her own experiences as a teacher, the movie features Pfeiffer as a 30-ish former Marine officer who takes on a class TOP ART FILM: The Postman () The much-talked-about independent film Little Odessa is playing, for those who want to see what the buzz was all about. But the better film is still this Italian charmer.

It stars Massimo Troisi, one of Italy's favorite comic actors, who brings joy and energy to the story of a postman who enlists Chilean poet-in-exile Pablo Neruda (Philippe Noiret) to help him win a woman's heart. At the Esquire Theater. FOR KIDS: Bate (G) () Sweet, funny story for young children features sophisticated special efffects to make a barnyard full of talking animals seem credible. The story, well told with genuine wit, touches on surprisingly weighty issues about prejudice, courage and defying expectations. At National Amusements.

MOVIE REVIEW room assignment after her divorce. Her first day in front of a roomful of sullen, disruptive near-dropouts almost drives her out of school. But she digs in and uses karate demonstrations, candy bars, tough talk, home visits to connect Soon, they are eagerly studying poetry and literature. Hard realities intrude; violence, poverty, pregnancy and hostile parents put up roadblocks Dangerous Minds (R; language). Michelle Pfeiffer, George Dzundza, Courtney B.

Vance. 99 minutes. At National Michelle Ffeiffer takes on a tough teaching job in Dangerous Minds. What lifts this film above the ordinary is the authenticity its cast brings to the enterprise. Pfcif-fer's performance is right on the money, restrained and intense at the same time.

Courtney B. Vance, as the soft-spoken principal without a heart, is cast in a one-dimensional villain's role but gives a blood-curdling performance nonetheless. Director John N. Smith, (The Boys of St. Vincent), elicits tremendous performances from the young actors who play Pfeiffer's students.

Most were new to movies; only a handful had acting training or experience. (Some were dropouts; GED classes were held on the set during filming so they could work toward graduation.) Particularly moving are performances from Renoly Santiago, who plays Raul, a boy first stunned, then inspired, to find a teacher who believes in him, and Wade Dominguez as Emilio, a macho troublemaker teetering between growth and destruction. Bruklin Harris likewise infuses her role as Callie, a smart girl facing a hard life, with dignity and shy intelligence. and not all of them are vanquished. This movie's ancestors include Blackboard Jungle, Up the Down Staircase, To Sir With Love and Stand and Deliver.

The ingredients are familiar hard-case students, rigid bureaucrats, a maverick teacher who defies convention. Real teacher: 'Dangerous Minds' not her life LouAnne Johnson i -On cr FOR TEEN-AGERS: Dangerous Minds () A word of caution: the obscenities that earned this movie an rating are plentiful. But they are also realistic in the context of the film. Based on LouAnne Johnson's book, My Posse Don't Do Homework, this emotional classroom drama features outstanding, natural performances from the young actors who play students struggling to expand their minds and their horizons. At National Amusements.

MOW THEY RATE Excellent Good Fair Poor "I had to change their way of thinking about themselves" she says. To do that she called on nine years experience in the military for leadership skills and on her psychology degree for insight "I wrote notes to parents when (students) acted badly telling them how wonderful they are. The kids didn't know what to do. They were confused. It got their attention." Some critics argue like the angry movie parent who pulls her sons out of school that poor kids need job skills more than poetry.

Johnson's program teaches job-hunting, but she also bebeves that academic learning imparts life skills. Schools that don't teach critical thinking are failing, she says. "It's criminal to me that students can spend that many years in school and never find anything in a book that speaks to them." BY MARGARET A. McGURK The Cincinnati Enquirer LouAnne Johnson, the model for the teacher Michelle Pfeiffer plays in Dangerous Minds, is tougher than her on-screen counterpart In some classroom scenes, for instance, "I would not have allowed them to misbehave as much as they did or as long as they did," Johnson says. "And I wouldn't tolerate some of the vocabulary." Johnson, in Cincinnati recently to promote the movie, worked with the filmmakers.

Co-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, screenwriter Ronald Bass (Rain Man) and executive producer Lucas Foster spent three days in Johnson's classroom. Pfeiffer often called Johnson for advice. Still, parts of the movie differ from her experience, she says. For instance, while the film's story about a student's death is realistic, she says, "It was not the principal's fault," as the movie suggests. Another scene shows her flinging candy bars to reward students who answer questions.

In fact, that incident was a makeshift inspiration. When a student broke the silence with a tentative idea, she says, "I reached into my pocket and touched a dollar. So I just pulled it out and gave it to him." Another one spoke up. She pulled a candy bar from her lunch bag. Soon they all started throwing out ideas.

"I gave away my whole lunch," she says. "I gave them pencils, notebooks. Some of them got a paper clip." From Johnson's point of view, it was a success because it got the students to think and speak out That is key to her mission in her special, program for students who are in danger of failing..