So, this is Mr. Holland’s Opus without the opus. I’m a fan of that storytelling structure. It’s pretty much Citizen Kane without the mystery element. Essentially, it’s a fake biopic. And it’s a movie from that era when WWI was The Great War. I love seeing how people looked at WWI before they knew about the Nazis. Best of all, I finally have the context for the original Breaking Bad pitch. Vince Gilligan has always said the idea for Breaking Bad was seeing Mr. Chips become Scarface. Now, that’s not exactly what the show was. Walter White never reached the Scarface level and he was certainly never as beloved as Mr. Chips. It’s still fun to know what Gilligan was talking about.
I have little to say about the movie itself. It’s pretty treacly and uncomplicated. This isn’t one where the studio was going to push against the Hays Code. It’s a nice enough story though and the performances, Robert Donat as Mr. Chips in particular, were pretty good.
Verdict: Weakly Don’t Recommend
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