The Penguin Lessons

Movie Review

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.