kosmasp Passing on a somewhat decent idea, the movie unfortunately does not take full advantage of its potential. If you like your torture movie and don't mind or rather cherish low budget movies that look better than the money that has been spent on it, than you are in for a treat. Unfortunately that is a very low bar.And while I do salute any movie that makes the most of a very tiny and small budget, that does not take away the fact, that it has to be just judged by those merits. Especially if you have so many clichés thrown into the mix. There is gore and there is offensive material aplenty. Don't confuse trying to shock with wit though. Does it try to be witty? Yes. Does it succeed? No. I reckon someone did not do their homework properly ...

lavatch With the gratuitous violence, it is difficult to understand what is the message of "The Lesson." The film began as a realistic domestic drama about family dysfunction and juvenile delinquency. It then lapsed into the horror genre with grotesque and virtually nauseating violence.Each of the male characters in this film was unsympathetic. Only the women's roles tended to refute the thesis of William Golding's novel "Lord of the Flies," which seems at the heart of the filmmaker's concept. In that novel, the bestial nature of a group of young British schoolboys emerges when they must co-exist on a deserted island.In "The Lesson," a formerly idealistic English teacher takes revenge on his recalcitrant and foul-mouthed students through the long scene that comprises his lesson on Enlightenment thinkers like Rousseau, Milton's epic "Paradise Lost," the Romantic critics, and Charlotte Brönte's "Jane Eyre."The most interesting character in the film was not the teacher, but Mia, who becomes the heroine when she shows compassion for her young step brother who did not return home. But the odd final scene compromises her strong character with a surprising plot twist.It was obvious that the screenwriter had a good handle on modern literature. The most clever moment occurs when Mia determines to keep in her possession one of the demented teacher's books, the 1966 novel "Wild Saragossa Sea" by Dominican author Jean Rhys. This is a postmodernist sequel to Brönte's "Jane Eyre" built around the secondary character of the Bertha Mason, the "madwoman in the attic" of the home of Rochester. Of course, the name Berta Mason was the correct answer given to the mad instructor's question, and her response was what saved Mia's life while she was a hostage.It is tempting to borrow one of the terms of the English teacher and suggest that "The Lesson" is filled with irony. But that would be far too great praise for this muddled and overly violent film.

koile-85 This movie knows what it wants to be! The camera is excellent, glamorous wide-shots juxtaposed with gray small-town rut, and personal small hand-cam shots. Muted colors of violence, boredom and frustration versus literal enlightenment through physical torture. The cast is really solid, the movie educates us with it's own story. The music keeps and/or juxtaposes the scenes perfectly. The writer/director Ruth Plath is clearly someone to look out for in the future. The expertly composed pictures, the story of the story of modern society and it's relation to literature, the wonderful maelstrom of violence... Reminds me a bit of Nicolas Winding Refn's work. On a more metaphysical level then a really comparable one. I could go on and on and on.9/10 because like 3 scenes didn't work that well in my opinion. But that's just nitpicking.WATCH THIS MOVIE! It's really good.

HorrorOverEverything The premise for this really caught my interest, a teacher getting revenge on some disrespectful little brats? Sign me up. Unfortunately while watching this it became very clear that this was not going to be an ultra gory torture/revenge flick, instead it played out more like an indie drama that just happened to have a horror premise.It starts off alright enough, the two boys are unlikable but I figured that was OK since the premise of the movie is about them being kidnapped/tortured. The big problem here though is that once the boys do get captured almost the entire rest of the movie is one big monologue delivered by the teacher character. This wouldn't be so bad if it was interesting dialogue, but it really isn't, he basically just goes through a bunch of things that the boys were supposed to learn in his class. This all leads up to a very underwhelming finale.Once everything was all said and done I didn't really feel anything, the movie never had me attached or interested in any of the characters. There are a few scenes that I could tell were suppose to be artsy/deep but they just felt forced. Overall I just wasn't into this, there isn't enough drama to make this a good indie drama and there definitely isn't enough horror to make this a good horror movie. There really isn't much to see here and you would probably be better off skipping it.3/10