Maggie Gyllenhaal is one of the best at playing well-meaning but self-destructive women, and in her upcoming film The Kindergarten Teacher she looks to excel at it again. The drama debuted at Sundance earlier this year and I remember hearing rave reviews about her performance in a disturbing role. Netflix agreed and picked up the film soon after, and now the trailer is here and it looks fantastic.
Directed and written by Sara Colangelo and based on a 2004 Israeli drama, The Kindergarten Teacher stars Gyllenhaal as a teacher who is realizing that her job isn't all that it was supposed to be. She wants to mold and shape the young minds of the future, but she's more like a babysitter. All of that changes when she discovers that one of her students may be a prodigy, and when the child's father doesn't want to pursue that (think Chris Evans in Gifted), she goes to extreme, even dangerous measures to nurture his talent.
Also starring Parker Sevak, Anna Baryshnikov, Rosa Salazar, Michael Chernus, and Gael Garcia Bernal, The Kindergarten Teacher hits Netflix on October 12th.
