“Freedom Writers” is a down- to-earth, inspirational movie that relates the story of a group of high school students in south-central Los Angeles.

Academy Award winner Hilary Swank stars as Erin Gruwell, an idealistic English teacher assigned to teach the remedial class at a inner-city school full of students torn apart by gang violence.

For the first 30 minutes Swank’s character was somewhat annoying; she let the kids run all over her and was oblivious to what was going on in the school.

Sharaud Moore, a struggling junior, was made fun of by a hideous drawing a Latino boy drew. Overwhelmed by this incident, Mrs. Gruwell went into a mad rant about the Holocaust and how the Nazis used this kind of propaganda to mock the jews.

After this, Swank’s naive and timid character finally stepped up and became the person the students needed her to be.

The first real tearjerker of the movie began with a series of brave questions by Gruwell to her students about how many friends they had lost to gang violence. The crying grows worse when a young Hispanic boy reads a heartfelt journal entry about how his family was evicted this summer. Suffice to say, bring tissues.

The gang violence is really brought on strong to the audience with the story line of Cambodians versus Latinos. Sindy, played by Jacklyn Ngan, and Eva, played by April Hernandez, are two girls torn apart by a shoot out between the gangs. Eva was one of the most dynamic characters in the story, going from caring all about her gang to caring about everyone. They have the classical story of hating each other and then in the end, becoming the best of friends.

One of the main themes is that one person can make a difference, which is

presented perfectly. Gruwell brought together a group made up of all different kinds of teens and made them see past race to become friends. When threatened to be split apart from their courageous teacher, the students ban together to give the crowd the last inspirational push they need to absolutely fall in love with the movie.

This movie is a brilliant mixture of a good story line and great acting. The actors portray these rolls and make the characters come alive. Viewers should be open and ready to become emotional when they sit down to watch this movie.