I went into 'Freedom Writers' expecting a run of the mill,

dare I say, 'Great White Hope' tale of teacher inspiration. I did get that, but it was oddly more affecting than it had any right to be. Yes, there were swells of music that forced an obviously manipulated emotion from us, and it had its share of cheesy lines, but once I cut through all the bullshit, there was cake beneath the sugary frosting. I genuinely cared for these characters and was impressed by the portrayal the quite talented young actors brought to the screen.

    The time is 1994, and after a brief chronicling of the Rodney King riots, we are brought to a Long Beach High School where Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) is going to be teaching. She is your typical starry eyed idealist that the department head (Imelda Staunton) knows will be eaten alive. Naturally, Erin is chewed and spit out. But, in true to life fashion, she refuses to accept her place as a simple "babysitter" for these kids and teaches them a thing or two about a thing or two, namely: intolerance. The kids are divided into their own little groups, based on ethnicity; there are blacks, Hispanics and Cambodians, with one lone white guy tossed into the mix. They hate each other, but for the life of them, they don't know why. The "war", as they call it, has been going on for so long that no one knows who drew first blood or why they keep doing it, it's just the only life they know.

    Every story of a teacher, or coach, facing this situation will follow the same formula: 1) hostility from the students, 2) tolerance, but neglect from the students, 3) acceptance from the students, 4) respect from the students and 5) love, the kind that can only be borne of a complete trust that one gets when someone actually genuinely gives a damn about them. Suffice it to say, the film hits all the notes more or less on point.

    Hilary Swank reminds you why she has two Oscars, and while this role is by no means a stretch for her, she shows a surprising range of emotion, from nearly breaking down to being a hard-ass to a loving wife or battle-hardened teacher.

    While Erin serves as the impetus, it is the kids whose lives we are most engaged in. They first start out as beaten down, like there's nothing better than "dying for your people", and end with something they never imagined: hope. It's hard to pin down who gave the better performance, because there was not a false beat in any of them. Director LaGravenese never played them for stereotype and they're the first band of misfits to actually feel like real-people, not some hollow cliché. Eva (April Lee Hernandez) is given the most time from the students and her story, focused around her father and her own need to "protect her own" is given the weight of the microcosm. Through her, we see Erin's effect on the students full on.

    'Freedom Writers', like so many other films, does take on a bit much. Plot threads and story points are introduced, but never followed through completely, if at all. There are a lot of characters to cover and to LaGravenese's credit, he deftly covers most of them. However, by the end of the film, as with war movies, you recognize people by sight and not by name, and more than a few students in the class are shortchanged, if not represented at all.

    The film shoots itself in the foot with its emotional climax. The students, studying about Anne Frank, invite Miep Gies (Pat Carroll) to visit. Gies was the woman who housed Anne during her time in the attic, and the speech she gives is heartbreaking and devastating, made moreso because it actually happened. It's a compelling moment that highlights the film's main theme, that just because someone is different (Gies was Austrian and Anne a Jew), doesn't mean they don't deserve to live. Unfortunately, the film runs about a little over two hours and this moment, the confluence of everything that came before, occurs at about the 90 minute mark, leaving 30 minutes where

    Now, an important matter: is it racist? Had it been fictional, yeah, maybe it would have come across like oh so many white savior movies. And, unless they changed Erin's race for the film, then the events that happened, happened. The kids first see her as simply a white girl (Eva even says she hates white people straight to Erin's face), but what evolves is the mutual respect and love between two human beings, and I'm pretty sure that is color-blind. A good teacher is a good teacher is a good teacher. What he or she looks like is irrelevant, right?

    We've seen the film before. We know the beats. And while 'Freedom Writers' never strays too far off the beaten path (downtrodden kids, idealistic teacher, an administration that stopped caring for the students and bars said idealistic teacher from doing what she's doing), a familiar story when done right, can be invigorating. I will guarantee that you will leave with a smile on your face and a song in your heart for your fellow man, whatever color or background they may be. Warm, a bit sentimental, it reminds you that there are still good people and good things being done in this world even as we speak, or write.

Also, when she's not all "man-ed" up, she is quite the striking woman. They say all teachers learn something from their students, but I've never seen the actual effect take place on film. She begins as a dewy eyed girl not knowing what's she getting into, her shoulders are down, but she's smiling, and yet, by the end, she's been through a lot, she's heard terrible stories and even her posture changes. She's more confident, able; she's finally showing that strength and grace that we can all see lurking under the surface. Her Erin is by no means perfect, she becomes distant from her husband and she can't solve everything, but she presses on and we cheer for her because of that.

'Freedom Writers' tries to reach the same emotional level, but obviously falls short. Call it Return of the King-it is, only with one prolonged ending, or "lesson", instead of a myriad of short ones. We're burned out by the time Miep speaks and when the scene changes, were actually shocked that the credits aren't rolling.