Monsieur Lazhar uses familiar tropes and somehow keeps it fresh by excellent acting and refusing the audience a happy ending. A French film in which the characters want to deny themselves a meditation about life and death-how can that be? It was made in Quebec and ultimately the meditation will emerge because no one deals with death, guilt and carrying on with life better than a French film. Monsieur Lazhar bien sûr emerges as the teacher who will help the children deal with these issues, but he is not an uncomplicated, inspirational, perfect image of the heroic teacher as played by Morgan Freeman, Michelle Pfeiffer or Edward James Olmos, who only live for their children. He is a well-meaning, but deeply flawed person hiding his own personal struggles and lack of qualifications while dealing with a dash of cultural misunderstandings and prejudice, which is subtly portrayed by both the well-meaning colleagues as they do skits that inadvertently glorify colonialism or parents who intentionally highlight the differences. The film also dramatically asserts that teachers have two choices: break the rules and be a good teacher or keep them and leave them in pain.