Whether you would like to call the film a new age ‘Silas Marner’ or just another age old story of a lovely bond that can form over education and pure mutual understanding, ‘The man without a face’ is very well among the most touching stories that you will see. It is both directed by Mel Gibson as well as it has him starring in it.

If you believe that you got to watch any film which has Michelle Pfeiffer starring in it; you might not be a good judge of films. Of course, she does carry though a performance in this film which lives up to the standards that she has set for herself and that we expect of her, but she is about the only talent that you would notice on screen.

In this film, Julia Roberts seemed to have achieved the same level of excellence that Robin Williams did in his ‘Dead Poets Society’. Although many people would like to believe that the film is a remake of the Robin William’s classic only with women in this film rather than a class of boys and a male teacher actually the film has its own different path of telling a similar tale, a tale that is the same in its essence.

You must know firstly that ‘Music of the Heart’ is actually a fictionalized version of the short documentary film called ‘Small Wonders’ and was made after the documentary won an award for its exceptional story. However, the film itself doesn’t pack as many punches as the makers would have liked it to have.

‘School Ties’ as it belongs to that particular genre of films has to overcome all those clichés that are usually associated with the usual films about school life and an educational institute, especially since the film is set in the 1950’s which is the period of time that has numerous such films set in the same time frame.

As you can guess, this film starring the same old Whoopi Goldberg is the sequel to the mega hit Sister Act itself, and the question is whether it has lived up to its expectations or not. The answer to that question would be that it could surely not beat the first film but it has tried really hard and is a good effort enough, although the natural human reaction would be to keep comparing the older film with this one.

Teenagers often have a difficult time understanding Shakespeare. The archaic language and metre confuse them, and this confusion prevents them from appreciating the Bard of Avon’s works. While reading Shakespeare, they might as well be sitting in on German classes London schools offer because it sounds so foreign. When they spend their energy trying to translate the lines into more modern language, they miss the messages, as well as the small pleasures that come from reading or seeing a Shakespeare play, such as the jokes and puns. They also have trouble recognising the relevance the plays may have to their everyday life. Only when students pick up on the parallels between their lives and any one of Shakespeare’s plays do they derive enjoyment and enlightenment from them. Teaching students to connect with the work is the real challenge of teaching Shakespeare.

Sometimes, the best way to approach teaching Shakespeare is to use modern film adaptations of his plays with actors and cinematography that appeal to teenagers. In many cases, this is an ideal way to introduce students to Shakespeare, especially because many teenagers will already be familiar with some modern film adaptations of his plays. Two movies that are fun and productive for teaching Shakespeare are 10 Things I Hate About You and Romeo + Juliet.

10 Things I Hate About You is a take on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. It stars Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The movie is highly popular among teenagers to this day, years after its 1999 release. This upbeat movie, set in a high school, is one students will want to watch, and it will make the transition into reading Shakespeare seamless. They will have no trouble understanding Shakespeare in a modern context after seeing this film.

Baz Luhrmann’s critically acclaimed Romeo + Juliet is the perfect film to introduce students to Shakespeare’s writing, because the characters’ lines in the movie are verbatim from the pages of the play. It is the modern context of this 1996 movie – from recognisable stars such as Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio to the setting in California – that makes it easy for students to understand and connect with it. After seeing Romeo + Juliet, they’ll feel that they can tackle the texts without enrolling at a language school London offers first.