Won’t Back Down is a badly titled movie with a great cast and a retread, but   compelling, theme.  The story is based on actual facts and is about motivated parents (led, of course, by an Erin Brakovitch-like character) with a dyslexic daughter, who wants a better school for her child and to get it, enlists a similarly circumstanced teacher with a guilt complex.  This is Stand By Me with a touch of Freedom Writers.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is an uneducated dyslexic Pittsburgh parent who fights the system to take over a dysfunctional school so her daughter can learn to read.  She enlists Viola Davis, who is a teacher in a bad marriage with a son that may be brain damaged due to her own mistake.  The two of them rally the other teachers and parents in a door-to-door campaign and ultimately a school board vote.  Holly Hunter (looking very long of tooth) and Rosie Perez play minor roles.

As “done” as this story may be, Daniel Barnz directed this story in a manner that worked and worked well.  That just goes to show you that there is a difference between same old and tried and true.  Unfortunately, I’m guessing that this doesn’t translate into box office.  We were all alone in the theater.

Norway invests its sovereign wealth in traditional ways….and outperforms the sexier funds and endowments that stick to passive and fixed income.  Sometimes tried and true executed well and consistently can win out even if our financial psyche wants to hang out with David Swenson.

I liked the movie and recommend it as a nice human interest story.