THE PENGUIN LESSONS

Here's the honest decision. This is one of the best-made films you could put in front of grown-ups this year — a loveable dramedy that balances comedy and real emotional stakes without fumbling either. The performances are believable, the penguin is refreshingly real, and the story of an apathetic professor learning to care about others is genuinely moving.

But the charm comes wrapped in things worth weighing. There's strong but brief profanity, crude and sexual jokes, and bloodless violence. More significantly, the film leans hard on a Romantic message that people are innately good, and it retells Argentina's war against communism through a revisionist, pro-socialist lens.

So this one's for adults who can enjoy fine filmmaking while gently pushing back on its ideas. Because that sifting is easier at home — where you can pause, talk, and let the little ones sit it out — we say wait for home, adults only.

Argentina, 1976. Tom Michell (Steve Coogan) is a listless British English professor who has just started a new job in a country simmering toward a military coup — and who wants nothing to do with any of it.

When the unrest boils over, Tom slips away to Uruguay for a vacation. There, entirely against his wishes, he ends up rescuing a penguin from an oil spill and smuggling it home to his apartment. The unwanted feathered guest begins doing something Tom never planned on: drawing him closer to his students, his colleagues, and the people whose troubles he'd rather ignore.

Four stars, and they're earned. This is an excellent dramedy that marries the familiar warmth of a pet-centered story to genuine dramatic weight. The visual storytelling is careful and rewarding — a running gag about Tom's dirtied shoes quietly tracks his growth as a character.

The penguin is a delight precisely because it's real; no CGI stands between you and the joy on the characters' faces as they watch the little bird explore. And when the dark historical setting threatens to overstay its welcome, the cast lands well-timed, believable jokes, or the film glides to a beautiful South American landscape. Yet when a moment truly deserves grief, those same actors deliver it. From the musical score to the colored lighting, every craft element serves the story. It's a lovely piece of work.

At its warmest, this film carries a light moral lesson: a self-centered man learns to value other people and to stand up against injustice. That's a good thing, and it's the heart the movie keeps coming back to.

But the film builds that lesson on a Romantic foundation Scripture doesn't share — the idea that people are inherently good. Here every character, from neutral headmasters to outright villains, softens and reveals an "innate goodness" after merely meeting a penguin. The movie also argues, again and again, that breaking the rules and trusting that hidden goodness is the truest way to love others. Justice itself is mocked in several scenes.

Then there's the politics. The film retells Argentina's war against communism through a revisionist, pro-socialist frame: bullies cling to a fascist heritage while the heroic underdog they torment is labeled a socialist. There's brief environmentalist celebration in the penguin's rescue, and a touching, patriotic note when a woman pleads for her family's freedom out of love for her homeland.

The film's real longing — that an indifferent man might learn to care — is worth honoring. But Scripture locates goodness not in ourselves but in the God who changes us: "None is righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10), and only He can give "a new heart" (Ezekiel 36:26).

This is a genuinely lovely, beautifully crafted film — and one built on a Romantic, pro-socialist frame that thoughtful viewers will want to push back against. Enjoy the penguin; keep your discernment close. Our answer is the same one we opened with: wait for home — adults only. Planning family movie night instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.