The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Excellent performances all round. Great cast. Interesting subject matter. However, it feels like the film is designed for the people holding the purse strings in the education system. "More funding please" Unlike the many similar 'teacher tries to save a group of wayward kids' films. This is squarely from the teacher's point of view, particularly Adrien Brody's character, following his daily struggles inside and outside school life. At times it is slow, focuses on the bleak and apparently unwinnable battle the teachers face. And is no more positive in it's hopes for the future of the students. All of this is quite deliberate but tiring. At times the plinky plonky sad piano and slow motion is a little over the top. I wouldn't recommend it to a friend. I admire it's attempt more than it's execution. 6.7 stars.

First of all, you want to know if this movie was enjoyable and watchable movie . In whole, we see the efforts of a substitute teacher to try to manipulate the manners of unethical kids . I don't know if the situation that is shown in this movie responds to the reality but if it does then it goes without saying ''God bless America''. Because this lifestyle is starting to adopted in my country, Greece . Kids must not only assault the teacher but also offend him. Mr Barthes is very decisive and knows how to react in these situations. Adrion Brody acts like he was being a teacher for several years.As it mentioned before , we see the efforts of Mr Barthes trying to help and at the same time teach his classroom. So he helps a raped slut that is very young and takes him to his house in order to take her after. Mr Barthes is firstly an altruist and not a conservative teacher who doesn't care about his class. Furthermore he helps Meredith who is a victim of offensive language from their students because of her beauty.Suddenly we see the difficult job of a teacher. These two, Meredith and the whore are sticking in Mr Barthes life without worrying about the future but only for the present. ''What should I do later?'', ''Is Mr Barthes keep me in her house forever?'' , ''I believe that Mr Barthes loves me''. These are the thoughts of frustrated personalities that they don't have anyone in their life to encourage them . All they need is some moral support and someone just to listen them.Nowdays everyone is very stressed and they don't spend time with their children. For many they don't even care about their future . They are just ''mouths to need to be fed''. I see the prejudices and the doublethink'' To be nice I must be thin''.'' To attract girls I must be working out'' ( I don't know that girls thinking sorry ) . Is this what is called sense of life? Of course not. The sense of life is determined by the choices you do. If you do the right choices you will be happy , if not you will be sad. And that is expressing clearly on the dialogue of Dr Doris Parker with one student whose dream is to play in a band after graduating and doesn't even care about school .The resolution to this is that teachers and only teacher considering that the most parents don't really care must lead students ''seize the day''. The fact that they are school is itself remarkable considering that in another countries they don't have teachers . An uneducated person ,these days , is a thing that is being used from everyone . And the worst is that he cant really react to the mistreatment who is living because when he had the chance to learn things he reacted to his teachers when the teachers , the good teachers, are the only one that they care about the future of the new generations.

To sum up what Depressi- I mean Detachment is like, just realize this is a grand social critique by the man who directed American History X. This leads me to only one way to describe Detachment: its heart is in the right place and it has some compelling drama going for it, but it's too over the top to present its social critique in a completely convincing manner. In a way, the same problems that plagued American History X now plague this film.Our main character is a substitute teacher named Henry Barthes, played by Adrien Brody whose face has a melancholy quality that makes him a natural fit for this film. In addition to merely teaching what the school wants him to teach, he actively tries to engage the students on an emotional and ethical level, to teach them things about life and so on. He goes on about the corrupting influence of the media and how the students must learn to think for themselves, etc. You'd think that would be enough to fill one film, but we also get a prostitute Henry pick up off the streets and tries to take care. There's also Henry's dying grandfather who lives in a nursing home and various employees at the school with problems of their own. The film thus tries to paint an enormous critique of the high school system through various characters.What the film has going for it, are the same things American History X had going for it: great acting and drama. Adrien Brody and the rest of the cast are all quite great, particularly Brody. The film is at its preachy best during the classroom scenes where Henry outlines several societal critiques in his bid to truly educate his students in his short time there. Several other scenes, including one where Henry verbally lashes one of the nursing home's employees for not taking care of his grandfather's needs, also have a great sense of drama and whether or not you'll like/love/hate the film, there is no doubt that watching Detachment is an impactful, intense experience.The thing that really hurts this film, however, is the same thing that hurt American History X: over the top melodrama (complete with slow-motion). As the film goes on, the film becomes increasingly melodramatic to the point that it becomes detrimental to the messages the film intends to spread. When an important, tragic character dies at the end, it feels too much as if the film – like American History X – suffers from It's Not A Good Story, Unless Someone Dies syndrome and that's not what you want. You want the death to feel deserved, which I feel this film did not. Also detrimental are the amount of well-known actors in this film. This is one of those cases where the amount of stars don't mix with the type of film. An art-house film featuring a star-studded cast hurts its aims for 'realism'.In the end it's easy to see this film has its heart in the right place. One can sense the anger behind all the social critique delivered in its scenes. Yet it is director Tony Kaye's overwrought sense of drama that makes the film devolve into an ever increasing spiral of sadness and darkness which makes it hard to deliver the Big Message without alienating the audience. Too much melodrama can turn off an audience and that's what happened for me. The film started off incredibly well, featuring lots of well-delivered social critique, but by the end – especially when (spoiler) the overweight girl died – the film became too dark and cliché-ridden. There was no light at the end of the tunnel, no subplots that ended well. Now, this is of course in line with the aims of the film, but how can I stay open to its messages when all it gives me is a nonstop portrayal of a society trapped in a downward spiral, regardless of the truths the film contains?

I became curious about this film because I read where this film was Same Gayle's feature debut. I didn't know anything about this person other than her role on Blue Blood and that show limits her acting strength after seeing Detachment. Here was a film that Tony Kaye directed with an understatement that disguises the powerful argument for sterilization. The students have dissolved into disrespectful future parole violators and the parents, some of them, are the source of these problem children. And trying to ride that ship in turbulent waters in the Adrian Brody character. His attempts to settle those waters is a force of nature one man cannot do alone. But I don't know if he calms those waters following a tragedy or if all hell hits the place and that was a dream? I don't know how old Sami Gayle was when this role was filmed but her corrupt innocence is washed over as an abused prostitute. Her first time encounter with the Adrian Brody character isn't Pretty Woman, a film I hated for it's depiction of the happily ever after prostitute. Sami Gayle's prostitute had more realism to it. The only misgivings I had was that the audience never got to know the results from her medical test. Perhaps it was edited out for time. And the teachers were excellent. I saw where Adrian Brody was the producer for this project. He pulled some top notched actors that made this work. James Caan , Lucy Lui, Marsha Gay Harden, Christine Hendricks, the other guy who held on to the chain link fence, all were good. And while watching this, you had the feeling that some student might go off on the deep end and that was predictable and not unexpected but it was done with the right tempo and uniqueness, no gun play.And I saw where it didn't do well at the box office. Well, with video on demand, I hope this avenue will work out for them so that more eyes can watch this exceptionally independent film.