Monsieur Lazhar

Written and directed by Philippe Falardeau, Monsieur Lazhar chronicles several months in the life of schoolteacher and Algerian immigrant Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag) – with the film primarily detailing the character’s ongoing efforts at ingratiating himself within his new school’s tightly-knit community. There’s little doubt that Falardeau does a superb job of immediately capturing the viewer’s interest, as the filmmaker opens the proceedings with a striking sequence involving the suicide of a teacher. From there, however, Monsieur Lazhar morphs into a fairly (and disappointingly) standard drama revolving around the comings and goings of several students and teachers within a small community – with the movie’s decidedly deliberate pace effectively preventing the viewer from wholeheartedly embracing the spare narrative. And although Falardeau has peppered the proceedings with a handful of admittedly engrossing moments (eg one of Lazhar’s students tearfully confronts the possibility that his behavior may have triggered the aforementioned suicide), Monsieur Lazhar‘s lack of affecting interludes ultimately ensures that the film is, for the most part, unable to pack the emotional punch that Falardeau is clearly striving for. Still, the movie is extremely well made and Fellag delivers a consistently impressive performance – with the pervasively affable vibe ultimately securing Monsieur Lazhar‘s place as a passable yet mostly underwhelming little Canadian drama.

**1/2 out of ****