THE PENGUIN LESSONS – Review

By Cate Marquis | March 28, 2025

Steve Coogan is terrific in true story-based comedy THE PENGUIN LESSONS which combines a quirky story about an ex-pat English teacher who accidentally acquires a penguin while teaching in 1970s Argentina, just as a dictatorship takes hold. Directed by the FULL MONTY’s Peter Cattaneo, THE PENGUIN LESSONS has some of that same mix of humor and humanity, in a off-beat tale that starts out comedic but ends up being moving, and saying something significant about people in a changing society.

Are penguins and authoritarianism having a moment? Could be. There was MY PENGUIN FRIEND, another true story set in South America, about a grieving man whose life is changed when he is befriended by a lost penguin. And there was the Oscar-winning I’M STILL HERE, about an Argentinian family whose lives are upended by the emergence of authoritarian rule. True, penguins are pretty irresistibly cute but authoritarianism in much on people’s mind right now, although the filmmakers couldn’t know while shooting the film.

Steve Coogan is perfect as a cynical teacher who is disconnected from life and certainly not interested in penguins, who finds a transformative second chance when a penguin joins his classroom, teaching both students and teacher about what is really important in life.

THE PENGUIN LESSONS, based on Tom Michell’s memoir of the same name, centers on an expat British man, Tom Michell (Steve Coogan), who has just accepted a job at a private school in Argentina, just as the political situation is entering a dangerous phase. A bomb goes off in the distance as the new English teach arrives at the stately but rural boarding school, which caters to the children of the wealthy and powerful in Argentina. Michell is greeted by the school’s headmaster, Buckle (Jonathan Pryce), who is nonplussed about the bomb, and quickly leads the new teacher on a tour of the school compound.

As they walk, the headmaster asks the new teacher to recount his resume of teaching positions. Coogan’s Michell describes a list of teaching posts that starts in Britain and prestigious Ivy League schools in the U.S. but then goes through a series of schools of decreasingly impressive schools in Mexico, Central America and South America. “I’m working my way down,” says the new teacher, pauses and adds “Geographically.” Clearly it is more that his location that is going south.

The headmaster points Tom Michell towards the teachers’ residence wing and the new teacher heads for his assigned apartment, which comes with a little balcony and a housekeeper. Michell accidentally surprises the housekeeper, Maria (a delightful Vivian El Jaber), who is partly deaf, who chews him out, establishing herself as a plain spoken person.

Still, the two quickly hit it off, as he does with her out-spoken niece Sofia (Alfonsina Carrocio)who also works at the school. A fellow teacher (Bjorn Gustafsson), who seems never to have heard of boundaries, saunters into Michell’s apartment uninvited, introduces himself, and makes himself right at home, much to Michell’s irritation, although he does not toss the intruder out.

Steve Coogan’s teacher presents a serious face to the headmaster but quickly reveals his true self, as a hard-drinking, cynical, snarky man who is going through the motions of life. His students are spoiled and a bit unruly, but Michell launches into teaching them about the greats of English literature anyway while requiring them to speak only English in class. At one point, he gives the students an assignment to work on, and then leaves the classroom. Outside, we see the real reason for the assignment – to take a break for drinking and lounging in the sun.

When the Argentinian military stage a coup and take over the government, the headmaster decides the students would be safer with their powerful families, and shuts the school for a week, at least. While everyone else is worried, Michell quickly and calmly makes plans to leave the country – for a beach vacation in a neighboring country. Unconcerned, he plans to spend his time drinking in bars, hanging out on the beach, go dancing and picking up women. His clueless colleague invites himself along.

The two do pick up a couple of women at a beach-side bar, and pair off. Strolling on the beach with his date, the couple come across gooey black evidence of an oil spill – and a penguin covered in oil. The woman insists they help the penguin and, hopeful of getting laid, Michell pitches right in. They smuggle the penguin into his nearby hotel and clean it up. But then the woman goes home, leaving Michell frustrated and in possession of a penguin.

His efforts to return the penguin to the sea goes nowhere, as the bird has become attached to him. In a series of comic scenes and confrontations with authorities, Coogan’s character tries to hand off the penguin to someone else, only to be told it’s his problem.

The result is that when the school reopens, the English teacher now has a penguin. With his classroom still unruly, he brings the bird, now named Juan Salvador, into the classroom. The penguin certainly gets their attention.

Steve Coogan is the perfect mix of smart, cynical and slovenly as this well-educated slacker. The cast is great, especially Steve Coogan, but Jonathan Pryce does well too, playing the sincere-seeming headmaster who shows a lack of courage when faced with pressure from the new regime but later redeems himself. Vivian El Jaber and Alfonsina Carrocio are sassy and touching, as Bjorn Gustaffsson provided a bit of goofy comic relief and serves as straight man for Coogan’s quips.

The penguin has a strange effect on everyone at school, who start pouring out their hearts to the silent, attentive little bird. Everyone grows fond of the little penguin, even if he is very smelly and not housebroken.

As the new authoritarian regime takes hold, and people starts getting snatched off the street, Michell finds his cynicism challenged.

What starts out as quirky comedy with a cynical man at its center, gradually becomes something more human and moving, all without falling into the saccharin or into falseness. When the film ends with footage of the real penguin, swimming in the school’s pool, tears may brim, in this surprisingly wonderful, touching, human dramedy.

THE PENGUIN LESSONS opens Friday, Mar. 28, in theaters.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars