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Adrien Brody, Marcia Gay Harden, James Caan, Lucy Liu, Christina Hendricks ... see more see more... , Betty Kaye , Tim Blake Nelson , Bryan Cranston , Louis Zorich , Blythe Danner , William L. Petersen , Sami Gayle , Isiah Whitlock Jr. , Chris Papavasiliou , Kwoade Cross , David Hausen , Roslyn Ruff , Gerald Walsh , John Cenatiempo , Brenda Pressley , Tiffani Holland , Lucian Maisel , Alex Boniello , Sze Ming Au , Mary Joy , Michael Hammond , Ronen Rubenstein , Al Calderon , Brennan Brown , Celia Schaefer , Reagan Leonard , Tarikk Mudu , Kevin T. Collins , Stephen Payne , James Hosey , Michael Herz & Llyod Kaufman , Nancy Rodriguez , Justin Campbell , Aaron Sauter , Josh Pais , Renee Felice Smith , Doug E. Doug , Rebecka Ray , Patricia Rea , Mama Kohn , Corwin C. Tuggles , Lonon Jay Wilson , Samantha Logan , Ralph Rodriguez , Annabel Barrett , April Maxey , Amber Vanterpool , Eli Massillon , Alsharik Sejour , Jonathan Hudson , Elvis Muccino

In Director Tony Kaye's Detachment, Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a s... read more read more...ubstitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body, Henry soon becomes a role model to the disaffected youth. In finding an unlikely emotional connection to the students, teachers, and a runaway teen he takes in from the streets, Henry realizes that he's not alone in his life and death struggle to find beauty in a seemingly vicious and loveless world. -- (C) Tribeca Film

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44 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 40 min.

Directed by: Tony Kaye

Release Date: March 16, 2012

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Flixster Reviews (205)

  • fb100001048934982
    March 19, 2012
    fb100001048934982
    Tony Kaye's 'Detachment' may not offer any answers to its cry for help, but its intriguing filmmaking that grips you from the beginning and ceases to let go. Adrien Brody's powerful performance is taut and sometimes explosive, and he proves to be more than a great anchor for the ... read morestory's tone and message. Kaye does a good job of gifting the audience with a sense of pathos for his film's characters, especially Brody. The material is not always easy to swallow, but Kaye and Brody have made a film that has something to say, and that message seems very important.
  • blacksheepboy
    March 6, 2012
    blacksheepboy
    What could have been an honest drama feels more like an overly extreme view on the American educational system. Kaye also insists on an over-stylish direction that seems incompatible with the intended realistic approach. Besides, the story becomes a melodrama in the final act.
  • PedroPauloA
    March 5, 2012
    PedroPauloA
    Detachment

    This movie serves to remind all of us that good indie movies still exist

    Detachment, is one of the best movies I have seen this year. Its complexity, and entirety remains truthful to the indie genre. It's experimental style, and depressing tone a... read morere not only touching but intriguing.

    Henry Barthes (Brody) is a substitute teacher that drifts from classroom to classroom facing the problems of the children, and the problems of the teachers, when his own world is full of problems.

    This is one of the most depressing films I have ever seen. However, it is done beautifuly through the eyes of Tony Kaye, just like American History X. His unique filmmaking style of experimenting with cameras and characters are truly remarkable.

    Detachment is a movie that has much to offer: a perplexing story, a unique and original indie film, and wonderful performances.

    In his unique style, Kaye uses this film to show the troubles and difficulties of our lifes, and the lifes of teachers and students, and how we are so detached from one another. He serves his purpose by using a experimental form of filmmaking where he uses a super 8 type of retro camera, a sketchy editing style, that reminds us how puzzling our lives are, and finally the decadency in the characters.

    This is a very pessimistic film, it is sad from beggining to start, and it is not here to make you feel good, it is a movie that serves the purpose to remind us that our society is killing and education is killing us by preventing us to be have compasion for one another.

    The acting in this movie is great. Brody shows us why he won an oscar in this movie. This to me is his most powerful performance, more than his great debut in The Pianist.

    Personally I have much to say about this film, but can't put it in words. I am fanatic for both educational films, and indie films, hence I love this movie very much. Although it is highly depressing this movie leads us into great and deep thinking, and movies are supposed to do that, not only entertain. This movie is brilliant for its experimental style, of a fictional documentary.

    Henry Barthes: "A faceless man in a classroom, is that how you see me?"
  • fb573220345
    May 9, 2012
    fb573220345
    Powerful, Depressing, Artistically Brilliant with a powerful message that is important today and should be taken seriously. While the movie maybe slow for some viewers, you have to pay attention to the poetic messages and atmospheric production to enjoy it. This movie is a strong... read more statement delivered through art, and must be viewed!!
  • fb720603734
    March 11, 2012
    fb720603734
    We're living in a time where it seems that every story has been told, so it's all about tone and execution. DETACHMENT, the latest feature from AMERICAN HISTORY X director, Tony Kaye, vibrantly proves that the there's still beauty left in the telling. Pick your favorite Horrors... read more Of The Education System film ---> Blackboard Jungle? Up The Down Staircase? Dangerous Minds? Stand And Deliver? We've seen it a thousand times. A well-meaning teacher tries to change the hearts and minds of a downtrodden group of schoolkids.

    If that's old news, then you're in luck. DETACHMENT, while set in the same environment, feels new because it starts off the with premise that the education system is broken and then plunks a disaffected substitute teacher into the middle of it to shine a harsh light on how it affects us all. Adrien Brody is astonishing (perhaps even better here than he was in his Oscar winning role in THE PIANIST) as the embodiment of a primal scream. Like the Camus he quotes in the film, his character is living the existentialist nightmare of a man who knows everything is hopeless and feels he can't do a damned thing about it. Scene after scene, Brody is compelling, intense, and sad. When he lashes out at a hospital attendant who isn't properly caring for his ailing grandfather, you truly feel his pain and sense of longing for a time when competence was important to people. When he cries on a bus as a hooker services an old man in the back, he seems to be crying for all of humanity. His character just can't deal anymore with what's happened to the world.

    Choosing a career where he can get in and get out without much emotional involvement, Brody's Henry Barthes presides over an uninterested, sometimes violent group of kids. DETACHMENT, however, isn't interested in the standard rehabilitation story arc. Instead, we're offered a slowly simmering series of vignettes, peeking into the desperate lives of his fellow faculty members, or following a student or two through their varied crises. Their performances are fantasic. Lucy Liu, as a harried Guidance Counselor, unleashes hell on a student in a scene that broke my heart. Christina Hendricks is a lost beacon of kindness, and evokes much sympathy in an otherwise underwritten role. James Caan and Marcia Gay Harden bring great conviction and humor, and Kaye's own daughter, Betty, brilliantly captures the loneliness and heartbreak of a student who never gets to have her good day.

    One potential hiccup in the proceedings could have been the TAXI DRIVER detour this film takes when Brody meets a teenage prostitute and takes her into his life. The storyline is there to give us a sense that his character does want to connect with others and there is hope. It's pretty schematic stuff, but Sami Gayle brings such vivid rawness to the part, that you end of caring what happens here anyhow.

    Kaye, service as his own Director of Photography, mostly gets it right, with a mix of black and white real teacher interviews, scary chalkboard animation, and a documentary approach to his coverage. I could have done without the fisheye lens perspective at times, as the subject matter is surreal enough without having to hit us over the head with it. A final series of images, however, redeem those choices, with a visceral and poetic interpretation of the decrepit wasteland schools have become. The score by the Newton Brothers deserves special mention, as it infuses the visuals and the great performances with such deep waves of emotion. Some people may hate the bitter attitude of this film, but I found it heartbreaking and filled with such a deeply rooted sense of tenderness and sadness over the loss we're all currently experiencing.

    In a world where everything is spoon-fed to us, DETACHMENT is a sad, elegiac memory piece for a time where we used to have minds of our own. It's not entirely without hope, but Kaye's strong visual sense, his cast's power, and Carl Lund's angry script is shaking us and telling us to get our heads out of our asses NOW. It's a work of art.
  • crossbladezero
    March 22, 2012
    crossbladezero
    Holy crow, what is up with Adrien Brody's teeth? All of these close ups really show you that his teeth are just two missed dentist appointments away from being about as crooked as, well, really, it should probably go without saying: His ears. I'm certainly not going to say his no... read morese, because I don't think anything can even come close to getting that crooked, and yet, they're still trying to sell him as that good-looking dude, which is totally... buyable, because he is a reasonably handsome dude, the barb wire teeth and bloated dorsel fin nose notwithstanding. He certainly looks better than me; I'd be so lucky just to have the nose so people would associate me with him. Eh, clearly he's not that big of a draw yet, because although he's decidedly notorious, he's in a film directed by the guy behind "American History X" and produced by the guys behind "The Hurt Locker", and yet, people still haven't heard of this film. That's a shame, because more people need to be seeing provocative stuff like this. I said provocative stuff "like" this, because although I liked and found myself generally fascinating by this film, it tells you little outside of the fact that James Caan is still alive, which, to be fair, is still pretty mind-blowing.

    Okay, first and foremost, allow me to at least give this film credit for really telling you what you're in for in the opening credits alone, and by that, I don't just mean that the opening montage of teacher interviews that explore very little tell you just how underdeveloped this film is going to be; I mean that they're showing you how they're going to film everything. Now, in all honesty, the lighting of the film is pretty sharp, yet when it comes to camerawork, there's very little intimacy and that takes a pretty major blow to the resonance in a deal of parts, which is something that you can say about a lot of films plagued by shaky cam, but this is too much, as the film is filled with many shots that are either overly shaky or terribly staged. Now, you think when I did that opening joke, I was saying that the camera is just close enough in Adrien Brody's face that you can see his messy teeth, but really, they all but actually stuck the camera between his lips, because there are plenty of shots that are so ridiculously exaggerated, and while there are more than enough shots that are comfortable enough for you to just kind of go with the film, it will hit those points where all of the broadness and organic flow of the film goes dead, which isn't to say that the camera is the only exaggerated thing in this film that hurts its ability to earn your investment. Now, I hate teenagers with a glowingly white hot, fiery passion and think that just about most of them are about as blunt as the bricks they have they have the common sense of, and while most of the teens featured in this film are a little bit worse than your usual pack of stupid kids, they still seem rather exaggerated and difficult to attach to as down-to-earth humans, which isn't to say that they're the only ones, because most everyone in this film is written to be so insanely over-the-top, that you just can't buy into it at a lot of points, yet the film's bloating and failure to fully nail its intentions doesn't stop there. I'm particularly upset with this film when I look at what is Tony Kaye's first and easily most notable accomplishment: "American History X", which was brilliant in how it explored such touchy, yet wrongfully overlooked and unfortunately very correct issues while subtley showing you where the line into extremism is drawn and realistically portraying how even those considered the key part of the problem are, in fact, suffering from the issue, but here, this film is going to opposite route and suspending most of the humanity and sparing on the details while feeling forceful in delivering its underexplored messages. What we're looking at is an unrelentingly bleak film that could have enthralled you and left you with much to chew on, yet as it stands, it's an overbearing, overstylized and overly exaggerated film that launches itself so far out of earth and doesn't even have enough meditation on its intentions to help pull it back down. However, although it's hard to fully cling onto this film, it's also hard to live up to the title of the film and find yourself fully detached, for although the film is wildly exaggerated, there's no denying that there aren't some aspects keeping you compelled.

    Now, the film hits many lows, yet you can always rely on this major thing to keep pulling you back in: Amusement, because everything is hilariously over-the-top and overstylized that you can't help but laugh. ...No, I'm not kidding; one of the main things that might keep you going through the film is the desire to see just what insanely ridiculous thing they will happen next. Now, that right there is a defining mark of a terrible drama, and yet, this film isn't even mediocre. It's a mess, to be sure, being so ridiculous that it's unrelenting rants ring false, more often than not, but when a signal does get through, you're won over and enthralled, because Tony Kaye, while incapable to turning a sloppy script into something as brilliant as "American History X", still knows how to boast the truth, and when this film does hit those glowing moments, as it does reasonably often enough, it really leaves you thinking, particularly when we hit that heavy, provocative and, well, pretty darn magnificent ending. For that, let us not only give it up to Mr. Kaye, but give it up to the performers, none of whom are terribly upstanding, yet they all play their parts and as, well, relatively down-to-earth as possible. I don't even know if Detroit is this absurd, but there are people like these out there; they're rarely to this degree of ridiculous, but they do exist, nevertheless, and our performers play them well enough, with some glowing moments of particularly phenomenal acting, to further grasp your attention, particularly Adrien Brody, who fails to disappoint, yet again. Now, don't get me wrong, he's not even given enough material to be terribly excellent, let alone as masterful as he was in the recent "Wrecked" or his big breakout, "The Pianist" (Seriously Marlow Stern, congrats on getting quoted for the ad campaigns, but calm down), but his portrayal of this man looking to save both others and, to some extents, himself is still thoroughly charismatic and very compelling, drawing you in every time he graces the screen with his presence, and while he's not quite stealing the show like he so very much did in "Midnight in Paris" (Best cameo of the year, and he would have gotten Best Supporting, as well as Best Lead (for "Wrecked"; I'm sorry y'all weren't terribly crazy about the film, but he was earth-shattering in that) from me if he had showed up for more than just "one" scene (Yeah, great job of letting one of the best things in that film slip away, Woody Allen) (That's right, I just pulled three sub-parenthesis within a parentheses)), he keeps this mess of a film going more than anyone.

    At the end of this seemingly endless lesson, if the film gets way exaggerated for its own good, not just when it comes to style, but when it comes to subject matter, as it is so over-the-top, unrelenting and only slightly informative that its good intentions don't always deliver as sharply as they should, yet when Tony Kaye actually pinpoints an informative and provocative piece of meditation within Carl Lund's spotty screenplay, he strikes with his usual burst of provocative skill to break up the messiness within the film, which is already kept going by, if nothing else, across-the-board strong performances, with Adrien Brody charismatically and compellingly leading the way in order to make "Detachment" the generally enjoyable, often fascinating and occasionally genuinely effective study on the loss of innocence.

    2.5/5 - Fair
  • anthonyle
    March 26, 2012
    anthonyle
    Detachment is the single most powerful film I have ever seen ever. Rather than actually focusing on the school and how life is to be a teacher, Detachment gets inside the life Henry Barthes and therefore, it connects with the audience. When I viewed the trailer, this was on the t... read moreop of my lists of movies to see in 2012. I saw it go from 100% on the tomatometer, then to 76% and the final score, 53%. I was dissapointed that a movie with such potential (good director, good cast, promising trailer) could be so mediocre. This was the same feeling I had with "Being Flynn" which I will check out soon. Adrien Brody, in my opinion, gives the finest performance since "The Pianist". From the scene where he's crying on the bus to the scene where Christina Hendricks accuses him of being a pedophile, he stuns audiences every moment he's on the screen. Although it is not likely he will win any awards for this performance, I think he really deserves one. Tony Kaye, who also made "American History X" once again does a great job with his talented cast. The shots within this movie are spectacular. They remind me of the shots in "A Better Life", which as I said in it's review, brings emotion out of the viewer. To everyone reading this review, I honestly think this is the best movie i've seen of 2012 and you need to ignore the 53% on the tomatometer and see this movie. If you do decide to, please comment your thoughts about it below. I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
  • fb100001139666279
    March 26, 2012
    fb100001139666279
    This is a movie with a good story, but fails on certain things.
    The performances are very good, Adrien Brody does a good job making his character of "tormented teacher". But the movie falls into a confusing narrative and situations rather crude, and certainly exaggerated drama.
  • sahurst56
    April 4, 2012
    sahurst56
    Love Adrien Brody as an actor and he also produced this movie. I thought was very deep and insightful about the pain people carry through there life. Great movie!
  • ThomasJayWilliams
    March 19, 2012
    ThomasJayWilliams
    We are told in school and while growing up to "strive to be the very best!" This is what Detachment was aiming for -- but it isn't quite as important as it wants to be. While I think it means to be an honest film, it feels rather extreme and put-upon at times with some of its u... read moreber-important messaging. By trying to tackle personal detachment, a failing education system (not the fault of teachers) and vacant/non-existent parents I believe the film has taken on more than it can handle. All of its messages hold some truth but there are a few scenes in which they are applied rather liberally (as in a GIANT serving of mashed potatoes liberally -- not political speak liberally). Oscar-winning actor, Adrien Brody (The Pianist, Summer of Sam), plays a full-time substitute teacher who drifts from school to school to avoid making any kind of personal attachment (he has some back issues that come to light in flashbacks); but his latest job doesn't allow him to continue on with that choice of life as he begins connecting with a misfit student, a fellow teacher (Christina Hendriks - Drive, "Mad Men") and an underage and manhandled prostitute he finds wandering the streets. With his character's narration, the film wants to philosphize what we've become as a society because of detachment from others (even kids with parents) and some of it works. Perhaps the intention of the film is to NOT point a finger at one culprit but with doing it this way the possible solutions are never fairly or adequately touched upon. Mattering to a single individual proves that life has purpose -- but Detachment wants a bit more than that and for me it didn't deliver. Although a valiant effort, it comes up just short.

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Critic Reviews

Rick Groen
May 4, 2012
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail

The film is guilty of reverse sentimentality, where the relentless unhappiness comes to seem as manufactured and artificial as the schmaltz in a romcom. Full Review

Linda Barnard
May 3, 2012
Linda Barnard, Toronto Star

Detachment gets an A for enthusiasm but a C for execution. Full Review

Robert Abele
March 22, 2012
Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

There's something weirdly effective about the artistic desperation, which includes inserts of chalkboard animation and to-the-camera testimonials. Full Review

Mary F. Pols
March 22, 2012
Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine

Everywhere you turn in Detachment, someone is trying to make you feel like hell. Full Review

Peter Travers
March 16, 2012
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Detachment gets to you. It hits hard. Full Review

Stephen Whitty
March 16, 2012
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

It wants to be an expose of the pervasive horrors of modern life. Instead, it just forces us to detach as well. Full Review

Kyle Smith
March 16, 2012
Kyle Smith, New York Post

"Detachment" quickly gets stuck in its own world-weariness. Full Review

Stephen Holden
March 15, 2012
Stephen Holden, New York Times

Even at its most ludicrous - when it is shouting into your ear - its sheer audacity grabs your attention. Full Review

Ella Taylor
March 15, 2012
Ella Taylor, NPR

[Brody] is undermined by a bloated script (from Carl Lund, a former public-school teacher) that lumbers him with bloviating asides about how we have failed our children. Full Review

Joe Neumaier
March 15, 2012
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

It's nice to see righteous anger in a movie. If only the education drama "Detachment" knew what to do with it. Full Review

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Facts

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    • Henry Barthes: Whatever is on my mind, I say it as I feel it, I'm truthful to myself; I'm young and I'm old, I've been bought and I've been sold, so many times. I am hard-faced, I am gone. I am just like you.
    • Henry Barthes: Some of us believe that we can make a difference, and then somethimes we wake up, and then realized we failed.
    • Henry Barthes: We all have problems, we all have things that we're dealing with some days we're better than others, some days we're not so great. Sometimes we have limited space for others.
    • Mr. Seabolt: The worst thing about this job is that nobody says thank you.
    • Henry Barthes: I understand you are angry. I used to be very angry too.
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Detachment Trivia

  • In the year 480 B.C. a detachment of 300 Spartan warriors led a doomed heroic stand against Persia's massive invading army in the Battle of Thermopylae. What 2006 movie does this describe?  Answer »
  • In "Mulan", Mushu keeps Li Shang's detachment in the fight by doing what?   Answer »
  • Nathalie isn't the only one to have her head detached in "Mars Attacks." Who else gets a skull detachment?   Answer »
  • March or Die 1977 Colonel Foster's detachment is specifically sent to guard a archeological dig of   Answer »
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