'The Penguin Lessons,' starring a teacher's pet, has feel-good movie moments down cold

The unsocial narration betwixt animals and radical is simply a territory often mined for cinematic fodder; the twist successful “The Penguin Lessons,” based connected the 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, is successful the exoticism of some the carnal and the setting, though the connection imparted is so familiar. Adapted for the surface by screenwriter Jeff Pope (“Philomena,” “The Lost King”) and directed by Peter Cattaneo (“The Full Monty”), the originative squad down the movie is good versed successful presenting offbeat quality involvement stories with humorous and mildly effectual messaging — and a distinctly British consciousness of humor.

When Tom (Steve Coogan) arrives successful Buenos Aires to thatch English to the privileged teenage boys astatine St. George’s College, it’s connected the eve of the subject coup successful 1976, which helium takes successful stride with a stiff precocious articulator and steadfast dose of cynicism. We don’t cognize overmuch astir him but that he’s lone funny successful keeping his caput down and retired of trouble. He doesn’t person overmuch involvement successful his pupils, the harrowing governmental concern oregon adjacent friendships. On a autobus to Uruguay for a play jaunt to debar the coup, Tom’s forthright Finnish workfellow Tapio (Björn Gustafsson) says helium likes his caller person Tom, who sighs, replying, “You do? I don’t.”

It’s connected this fateful travel to Punta del Este that Tom’s beingness begins to change, aft a nighttime retired with a beguiling pistillate (Micaela Breque). Wandering the formation astatine sunrise, they observe an lipid slick studded with penguin carcasses. His caller acquaintance persuades him to instrumentality 1 of the surviving birds backmost to his edifice successful an effort to prevention it, past dashes, leaving him with the now-clean penguin. Try arsenic helium mightiness to ditch his feathered companion, the penguin volition not permission him alone, truthful Tom smuggles the vertebrate backmost to Argentina and into his field apartment, mostly due to the fact that nary 1 other wants to woody with a escaped penguin.

The modular heartwarming and humorous carnal communicative unfolds arsenic the penguin — yet named Juan Salvador — forces Tom retired of his grumpy, bored existence. The care, feeding and hiding of this carnal unit him to unfastened up to those astir him, similar Maria (Vivian El Jaber), the field navigator and cleaner, and her granddaughter Sophia (Alfonsina Carrocio), a extremist lefty who urges Tom to instrumentality a much progressive relation successful not conscionable his authorities but arsenic a subordinate of the community. “I expect atrocious radical to bash atrocious things,” she says. “But erstwhile bully radical bash nothing, I could punch them successful the face.”

Juan Salvador besides becomes Tom’s mode into bonding with his unruly students, wrangling their scattered attentions with the antithetic (and adorable) animal. He finds the inspiration to thatch them softly extremist poetry, overmuch to the chagrin of the school’s headmaster (Jonathan Pryce). The small penguin becomes a benignant of mascot, a precise cute carnal for them to rally astir and a therapist of sorts.

Juan Salvador forces Tom to link with others, and done this, helium finds his spine, supporting his caller friends portion they endure the turbulent and terrifying times of Argentina’s subject dictatorship. Cattaneo and Pope negociate to equilibrium the code of a melodramatic humanities depiction of fascism with a charming carnal communicative and their concealed limb is Coogan. His bone-dry transportation makes it truthful that the sour is ne'er excessively crisp and the sentimental is ne'er excessively syrupy. Even successful moments of heavy sadness, he’ll ace a rueful joke, and erstwhile helium lets Tom’s vulnerability show, we spot the effort that it takes for this antheral to instrumentality his cervix out.

“The Penguin Lessons” is reasonably formulaic — it hits the beats you expect it to, precisely erstwhile you expect it to deed them — but it is simply a stirring yarn, made each the amended being based connected a existent story. Thankfully, Cattaneo opted to formed a existent vertebrate (actually a brace of them). The thought of Coogan acting other a CGI penguin is chilling.

Perhaps we don’t request the reminder that our idiosyncratic relationships with animals are immoderate of the astir peculiar and rewarding ones that we tin bask arsenic quality beings, but “The Penguin Lessons” besides underscores that our relationships with radical are adjacent much important and that sometimes animals are the champion stewards for this peculiar journey. Juan Salvador is surely 1 of the much memorable ones.

Katie Walsh is simply a Tribune News Service movie critic.