A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment.
Detachment Ratings & Reviews
- sveiApril 4, 2026This is a somber movie with a small thread of hope. Samy Gayle absolutely steals the show as the teenage girl sheltered by Adrian Brody’s character. The cast is stacked, James Caan is memorable in this state that really all the older characters are - burned out schoolteachers in an underfunded and overmanaged public high school. They all blink and bristle in subtly different ways, Marcia Gay Harden is amazing, Bryan Cranston spends 90 seconds on screen and redefines his spouses character, and Tim Blake Nelson’s character is kinda amazing too. And Lucy Liu. And… there are really like 20 stellar performances in here, in a really moving story.
- Jay Ashley SparksNovember 18, 2025Although not the most exciting movie, Brody is outstanding and pushed this to a 4 star review. Filmed more as a fly on the wall documentary than a traditional movie, there were moments where speeches by Brody's character Henry Barth were simply powerful, emotionally charged and at times overwhelming. Certainly sheds light on Teaching as a profession and the challenges that come with it, that is hidden from most. A real eye opening experience of movie
- leeartleeDecember 12, 2025So I thought this movie would be kind of a cool “ really hip teacher helps these toughest nails students see the light” kind of movie. Instead, it was no joking one of the most depressing and hopeless films I’ve ever seen… well at least for the last couple of years. There’s some really great parts but there’s a lot of just depressing “oh my God kill me now” parts too. I think that some people will really click with it. For most people, though I think they will not enjoy the movie. It’s fairly slow paced not that much happens and there’s no resolution to the problems that they present throughout the film.
- Daggerhead69December 24, 2024He's just like me fr - numb and hollow inside - never have i ever seen a movie mirror my personality this well before - its prolly me but i relate to finch from ATBP and adrien brody from detachment a lot - something about this wrenching pain and isolation feels comforting when potrayed on a larger screen :)
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Detachment Trivia
Detachment was released on April 24, 2011.
Detachment was directed by Tony Kaye.
Detachment has a runtime of 1h 37m.
Detachment was produced by Austin Stark, Bingo Gubelmann, Benji Kohn, Chris Papavasiliou, Carl Lund, Greg Shapiro.
A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment.
The key characters in Detachment are Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody), Principal Carol Dearden (Marcia Gay Harden), Mr. Charles Seaboldt (James Caan).
Detachment is rated Not Rated.
Detachment is a Drama film.
Detachment has an audience rating of 7.4 out of 10.
Detachment has made $1.7M at the box office.