Freedom Writers

Freedom Writers follows Erin Gruwell, a newly qualified English teacher who takes a job at a high school in Long Beach, California. Her class is made up of students from different minority backgrounds, many of them dealing with gang violence and racial tension in their daily lives, and the school has largely given up on them. Erin struggles at first to reach a group that is divided into rival cliques and wary of yet another teacher, but she gradually earns their trust, using writing and works such as Anne Frank's diary to get them to open up about their own experiences.

The film was directed by Richard LaGravenese, who also wrote the screenplay, and it came second in his directing career after his contribution to Paris Je T'aime. Hilary Swank plays Erin, with Patrick Dempsey as Scott Casey, Scott Glenn as Steve Gruwell, Imelda Staunton as Margaret Campbell, April Hernandez Castillo as Eva Benitez and Mario Barrett as Andre Bryant among the large cast and crew.

Released in January 2007, the film had a budget of 21 million dollars and took about 43 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.6 from around 93,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.9 from roughly 2,500 votes. A critics' rating of 6.4 from 124 reviews places it below the audience scores.