“THAT’S WHAT I AM.” | School drama
PG. 1 hour 41 minutes. At area theaters.
“That’s What I Am” is a period piece about tolerance, learning people’s true value and the cruelty of childhood.
It stars the always-terrific Ed Harris as a beloved teacher threatened by rumors about his sexuality in 1960s Southern California, and Chase Ellison as a student who learns that there are more important things than what other people whisper about somebody.
Ellison is Andy, a hormonal middle-schooler coping with bullies, girls and fitting in. He’s every bit as fixated on his social status as that infamous “Wimpy Kid.” And that’s why he’s mortified to be paired up with the class “geek” for a class project.
“The Big G” (Alexander Walters) is a tall, ungainly redhead whose “head is too big for his body and ears are too big for his head.” Smart or not, everybody picks on him. Mr. Simon (Harris) is the teacher who teams them up. He sees potential in Andy.
“Define yourself as what you want to be,” he preaches. As in, ‘I am a writer. That’s what I am.’ “
The bullying at Jefferson Middle School has become ingrained in the place, with designated areas for the outcasts, elaborate and cruel rituals and wedgies and worse for those who don’t abide by the rules.
Mr. Simon injects himself into this combat, and that’s when the rumors start. Want to get rid of a teacher who cracked down on you? Accuse him of being gay.
Harris plays this guy right down the middle, convincing us that his dignity won’t let him answer the pleas of the principal (Amy Madigan) who wishes he’d defend himself.
Walters, a screen newcomer, makes Big G more self-aware than his classmates. He is both resigned to the abuse and bullying and above it. “I can’t make them be nice people,” he says.
Writer-director Michael Pavone, a veteran of episodic TV, goes off course in the second half of the film as we lose track of the supposed eye-opening relationship with Big G in favor of Andy’s middle school flirtation. But a winning narration (read by Greg Kinnear) holds things together. And there’s just enough script for a good cast to run with.
